The Second Carthage
by Richard Allen he of 19
Summary: Rome, 16 August 2019. It's been 14 years since the supercomputer shut down and XANA's defeat. At the same time, a boy discovers in the Deep Web a hidden link, leading to a page that is denied access. After hacking it, he discovers something unimaginable...
1. Chapter 1: It came from the Deep Web

**Yeah, yeah, I know, the summary's probably gonna suck.**

**Apart from that, welcome to this fanfiction. Especially my very first fanfiction ever written (I started writing very recently, and I'm also trying to write a book on my own. Yeah, I'm deep in shit.)**

**Moreover, English is not my mother tongue (I'm Italian), so forgive me for some oversight of translation.**

**Having said that: The Fanfiction wants to act as a sequel to the series (like probably 99.99% of Code Lyoko fanfictions. I'm very original, aren't I? :( ). But instead of starting it all at Kadic, I preferred to think of a slightly different beginning: in the series and in the books the presence or absence of supercomputer prototypes in other hypothetical detachments of the Carthage Project has never been specified. So... why not create one?**

**Rating T because who knows, we will see later.**

**I've talked too much, I'll leave you to chapter one. Please review the fanfiction, even if there were a need for insults about my (probable) inability :)**

Rome

16 August 2019, 16.20

(Background music: Ocean Drive - Miami Nights 1984)

As the sun's rays forcefully penetrated through the open window of that room located in the boundary between the Ostiense District and the Old Town, a 14-year-old boy, with mahogany hair (almost black, not being hit by the light) disheveled after a half hour's sleep, was enjoying one of his main hobbies when he was at home: surfing the Deep Web.

But certainly not to explore sites selling drugs and untraceable weapons, or sites ... "sick".

What really interested him were the ridiculously strange sites: where you found new cults, conspiracy theories or even just the craziest nonesense. Among the pseudo-Satanic sects, attempts to organize raids against secret military areas and geometric designs that, if deciphered (i.e. never), would have to prove your high IQ, there was a lot of fun all day long.

"Ahhh it's a pity that this stuff isn't available on the everyday Web: you could meme it until the next century." he said it out loud, overpowering the background music that, before now, was the only source of noise in that room. Along with the mouse clicks.

Oh, yeah. He's Jacket.

Or rather, he calls himself Jacket: technically his name was Richard, but only his family call him by name. His close circle of friends gave him that nickname because of its peculiarity: no matter what season it was, every time he went out he always had a jacket with him. It was his hallmark, which allowed you to recognize him at first glance, also because his tastes in terms of clothes were quite unique: in winter he wore American or British military jackets (even better if they had fur on his collar), while in summer he had a Varsity Letterman, which seemed taken by a former player of the football team of a high school in '83.

While trying not to spit his Pepsi can on the web page in front of him (a black background page on which there was an image of Adam joining his finger to a pile of floating spaghetti), Jacket noticed an anomaly: in a fraction of a second when he had passed his mouse pointer over the black background, he seemed to have glimpsed the icon indicating text.

Jacket placed the can on the table, next to a manual of "Warhammer" ("a grim world of perilious adventures") and the related campaign notes. Then, with a deliberate exaggeration, he counted the fingers of his right hand. The choice was not random.

"..4 and 5. Okay, I'm still lucid, and normally there should be no text icons in the background of a web page..."

Suddenly he started to "sift" with the mouse the whole background of the page to find that anomaly. It took only a few seconds to find what looked like a hidden link in the HTML code. The only problem was that it redirected to a page that was denied access.

"Hmm, the network has no problems, and the site says no more than "ACCESS DENIED"... I think it's time to force my hand a little. "

Among the various interests of Jacket, one in particular has proved to be a useful skill: hacking. Of course he would never have been able to penetrate extremely protected government systems, but he managed to get around most of the protections.

Now he had to "brute force" the server. So Jacket first started a program, created by him, that connects the computer to about twenty networks and PCs in the world; in this way it's much more difficult to find the source of the attack, thus allowing the hacker to penetrate the system, steal its data and detach himself away in total peace of mind. Combined with his periodically changing IP address, Jacket was virtually trace-proof.

The result of this "computer home invasion" was a PDF file, so he used another program of his to scan the file, to make sure it was not a virus, or even just corrupted.

The check was passed with flying colours.

At this point Jacket opened the file, finding something inside that was worth more than a hundred gold mines.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

PROJECT CARTHAGE-ITALIAN DETACHMENT

CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

This was what you read on the first page of the file; as intriguing as it was already, that page was only the prelude to a sensational discovery.

The file revealed an entire government war project, developed for the Cold War, which consisted of two quantum supercomputers: the main one was located in Paris, hidden under an old abandoned factory, while there was also a prototype that, to Jacket's amazement, was right in Rome, inside an old World War II bunker, hidden under a now disused building, only a couple of blocks from his house!

And that wasn't all: the file also gave information about the creator of the project, including the name and current status of himself and his family.

Waldo Schaeffer: Missing, probably dead.

Anthea Schaeffer: Disappeared.

Aelita Schaeffer: Unknown

Attached was a photo of the family: Waldo Schaeffer, the moustached and bespectacled scientist, along with his wife Anthea , with long pink hair (_"Who knows if they're natural..."_) and finally a little girl with short hair, pink like her mother's, intent on discarding her Christmas gift; Jacket assumed that it was Aelita Schaeffer.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

At this point a normal person would have deleted the file and forgotten the matter for fear of possible trouble with the government. But Jacket was the last person to care about things like laws or common ethics, and frankly he didn't understand blindly following them.

It was time "to make a nice trip" to the building. But not without proper preparation.

After dressing up, combing his rebellious hair decently, and greeting his cousins and current guardians, he made a stop at the garage for a moment: he put a torch, a crowbar and some snacks in a fairly large and resistant backpack (the day could be long). Then, he got on his bike.

Destination: abandoned building!

"Cousins and current guardians"? Well yes.

At birth Jacket was diagnosed with a psychological condition partially attributable, in some respects, to a slight sociopathy: lack of understanding of respect for moral ethics, laws and politically correct.

This is reflected in his way of speaking: dialogues with very referential jokes, often full of rough (though never racist or sexist) "Black Humour" and a strong lack of "education". Both qualities inherited from both the London father (in terms of black humour) and the Scottish mother (in terms of... strong words ...).

And it is this condition that has led the mother to leave in France, dragging her husband -by the not very strong authority- with her , and leaving the child to older cousins. The only calls Jacket receives are from his father, who wants to ensure that his son is always well.

It only took half an hour to get in front of the place concerned: a building with peeling walls and a couple of broken windows. After tying his bike to a pole, Jacket, with his backpack, entered the courtyard full of weeds, finding an open door leading to a basement: the smell of damp overlooked the entire room, lit only by a tiny filthy window, and whose decor consisted only of a couple of broken bikes and a pile of sandbags for constructions.

Jacket then began to inspect the entire floor and walls, looking for hatches or secret passages on the walls. Apparently the room didn't have any of this, but the boy's gaze fell on the sand bags: driven by curiosity he started to move them away, revealing a trapdoor embedded in the ground: it wasn't even closed by a padlock.

Then Jacket lit the torch and opened the trapdoor. A staircase led to what looked like a long, completely dark corridor; at least there was no smell of mold in there. After the stairs, Jacket walked down the underground tunnel, walking through what seemed to him to be 15 minutes, after which he arrived in front of what seemed to be a sliding door, next to which there was a worn and dusty numeric keypad.

"Shit, you need an access code..." thought Jacket, who was not amused by the situation. So I try to insert the date wrote in the PDF file: 1979. He had a little hope that he'd got the right code for luck. When the last number was entered, a pre-recorded voice came out of the device's speaker: the only problem was that the audio was unlistenable, completely out of phase and corrupted. In addition, the door had started to open, only to block after a few seconds, leaving a gap as the only opening.

Jacket then deduced that it didn't matter if the code was correct or not: the door would freeze anyway. Luckily, he had a crowbar with him; putting a lot of strength and, above all, a lot of patience into it to avoid accidentally injuring himself, he managed to move the door, and then push it until it opened enough to pass through.

After recovering for a moment from the fatigue, Jacket resumed the torch and pointing it towards the hall, intent on going to the end of this matter.


	2. Chapter 2:Down to the(Virtual) Bonehoard

**CHAPTER 2, Just for you!. So, i know that this first 2 chapters are quite short, but it's just because is a whole introduction: chapter 3 and 4 (still to be translated) will be more longer and explained. Please review. **

**P.S: Edward nickname is "Ed", so i'll call him like this in most of the dialogues.**

**P.P.S: The strange title of this chapter is areference to a level of Thief: The Dark Project, called "Down to the Bonehoard"**

* * *

If he had said it around, certainly no one would have believed him; after all, according to the people, what Jacket had discovered when he went through that door was science fiction, it could never have existed except in movies.

Well, sorry for the last-minute ultra-sceptics, but science fiction was physically before his eyes.

The torch illuminated what, going logically, was the real supercomputer: a dusty steel rectangle, equipped with a power button, whose red paint had now peeled off for a while, and a large LED. From the back of the computer, a series of cables about the size of a leg started to connect to two other devices: one was a large monitor with an integrated keyboard, attached to the lower edge, and a comfortable chair included; the other was the furthest away in the room, and was a large copper-colored steel cylinder, inclined 30° above the ground: it was a human-sized scanner, according to the PDF.

And again, according to the file information, the supercomputer located in Paris was much larger and more powerful, so that the monitor station, supercomputer and scanners each had a dedicated room. But in the end, size wasn't the thing that mattered to Jacket at the moment; the very existence of a supercomputer, which was so close to his home, was already enough of a discovery of the century.

In some ways, he no longer needed gifts on holidays.

Jacket, taking all the time to observe, approached the supercomputer's start button: he was still in time to give up and return home, like ordinary mortals.

But by then he was in it up to his neck.

Jacket said, **"It's time to do the bullshit"**, and then he firmly pressed the button.

At that moment, the glow from the supercomputer's LED forced him to retreat, with his sight clouded and his eyes tearing. It took a couple of minutes to regain a clear view, and then to see how the room was now completely illuminated; on the other hand, the torch, prey to an epiphany, had decided to snuff it.

_"Oh well, it was a cheap one anyway. Literally."_

From the monitor station you could see the screen illuminated, showing a loading bar that, once completed, led to the desktop screen of the supercomputer's operating system; the screen reads:

_**"HOPPIX OS BETA 0.5"**_

The writing, like the entire interface, was a pink-purplish neon color. Very 80's.

**"My compliments to the programmer fo AESTETHIC"**

The OS interface was a mixture of graphical windows that could be managed by mouse and keyboard commands. And now it was time to hang around the system files.

Luckily, the commands were the conventional ones used in the most common OSs, because it only took him 10 minutes to explore the whole file system, finding something very interesting: a folder called "Diary 1.0"; inside there were a series of video recordings that Jacket, to listen to them all, took an abundant hour.

* * *

Waldo Schaeffer, the scientist in charge of the Carthage Project, explained in the video diary, time by time, his progress in the most ambitious project in the supermercomputer: a simulation of a virtual world that could be entered through scanners, which would "virtualize" the subject within the simulation. The purpose of this was to test the theories about virtual simulation and, above all, the power of the quantum supercomputer.

In simple words for the uninitiated: a huge video game with not too structured gameplay.

At that stage the project was still funded by a few individuals, many affiliates of a terrorist organization called "The Green Phoenix", so the virtual world was not extremely huge or complex.

The diary continued, reaching a turning point: the abandonment of the Italian detachment of the project, in favor of the Parisian supercomputer, better from all points of view, obtained thanks to the substantial government funds. Despite this, various data were copied on the Italian supercomputer and the possibility of connecting to the French computer through an expedition into the prototype virtual world, called "Xanadu" (which seemed to mean "paradise") was implemented.

However, the whole thing reaches an unexpected twist: in the last videos of the diary, Professor Schaeffer explained how he believed that the Carthage Project would be used for humanitarian purposes; unfortunately the NATO governments intended to use the project against the USSR in the Cold War.

**"When governments will use their projects for genuine humanitarian purposes, at the very least we will have colonized new planets. Which I doubt will happen shortly."** Jacket said in a mocking tone. Even if he was alone in that room.

Waldo Shaeffer then revealed how his wife Anthea had been kidnapped, and that he and his daughter Aelita were in grave danger. After changing his name to Franz Hopper, becoming a teacher at Kadick College, he made an extreme decision: first of all to create an artificial intelligence to protect the supercomputer from the hands of the government, called XANA. And then virtualize himself and his daughter on the new virtual world: Lyoko.

The diary ended here.

A virtual world accessible from a scanner: Jacket HAVED, and WANTED, to try and get into it.

But there was a problem: who would control the computer, make him virtualize, explore and then return it to the real world? The idea of being trapped inside a PC as father and daughter was not appealing to him.

He needed someone who would try to get into the scanner and be virtualized. Someone who could convince him without paying him any more money (_"I'm anything but a rich boredom"_).

**"Maybe I know a suitable person...".**

* * *

Edward was devastated.

Today was his last day at the historical fencing gym: for the farewell, they had organized a local tournament among the members of the association; Ed loved fencing and tournaments made of duels with long swords, but today the opponents were very skilled. He would soon move to Paris, as his parents had found a well-paid job there. So as a result Ed felt as if his body had abandoned him to walk around.

He entered his room, airy, spacious and softly colored, and threw himself on the bed; he needed at least half an hour's rest before dinner.

And by that time he was already thinking about his departure. He would miss so many things about the boot-shaped peninsula: the food, his Eternal City, his relatives and friends.

And among his friends, especially that crazy daredevil of Jacket.

He never understood how that Anglo-Scottish boy could be so indifferent to the rules of life.

So Edward, in a way, was the antithesis of Jacket: always courteous, kind, respectful of the rules and common ethics, as well as politically correct: Ok, sometimes the laws are unfair and some people are bigots, but in general all these rules are necessary and useful for social coexistence, so Edward always follows them.

And it seems to be true that talking about the devil the horns come out, because at that moment his phone was ringing. Listlessly he took it to look at the number: it was just Jacket.

As education would have it, you answer the calls.

Ed: **"Hello... hi Jacket. Listen, I just got back from the gym, I'm tired and dead and in two weeks I'm leaving for Paris..."**

Jacket: **"Two weeks? Perfect, then surely a couple of these days you're free. Look, I absolutely need you."**

Ed: **"...Do you need me? You don't want to put me in the middle of your risky, ingenious ways. Like that time you asked me to put a flash drive with a virus in the teacher's computer, just because he was maybe a little over the top when he put a bad grade on your test... you know that if he found out we'd both get in trouble, right?"**

Jacket: **"What? No, no bullshit like that. I've discovered something very big, or rather epochal, and I need your help. You'll see what it is about on the spot".**

Ed: **"...Can't you just tell me now what it is?"**

Jacket: **"If I told you now, without letting you see it, you wouldn't believe me. Let's do this, if it turns out that I told you a colossal bullshit, we'll go to the usual place and this time It will be my treat, all right?"**

Ed: **"...Your treat ?"**

Jacket: **"...I promise..."** He said by raising the middle finger; it will never happen anyway.

Jacket: **"So, here's the place and the time..."** Then he described to him the place and time of the meeting.

**"See ya the day after tomorrow, bye!"**

Ed: **"Wait, I haven't given an answer yet... hey?..."**

He had hung up. As usual.

Now Ed could not miss the appointment: By now he was too curious.


	3. Chapter 3: Welcome to Paradise

**Whoops, it seems that i've just translated and uploaded the 3rd Chapter. I've luckily just found DeepL, a site wich translate WAY better than Google Shitty-Translate. So i revised the text more times and apart from little modifications to make it smoother and more correct, it's 98% correct english. So, here's chapter 3! Enjoiy and Review!.**

**P.S: there are 1 or 2 reference to books, movies or pop cultures; there will be in quite every chapter, so try to find them!**

* * *

Jacket: **"You're just a little late."**

Ed: **"... Well, I had an urgent commitment."**

In response, Jacket looked at him with an unconvincing glance; they were on school holidays, apart from a few things about moving to Paris, what commitments could he possibly have?

Jacket: **"... Oh well, now follow me, so you can see it with your own eyes."**

The duo went inside the dirty, damp room. The sandbags had been moved.

Ed: **"Oh tell me, is this your "epochal discovery"? A cellar in an abandoned building?"**

Jacket: **"I never said my discovery was right here in this room"** he said, and then pointed to the open hatch **"Come on, we're going downstairs."**

Ed: **"What, are you crazy? What if the hatch closes underneath us, and blocks it?".**

Jacket: **"What is it, are you scared?... come on, if I came back alive and well from there, there's no need to worry"** so he went down by himself

Ed: **"... Well, I can't leave you down there alone, so I'm going down there too. And I'm not scared, I'm just very cautious!"**

As soon as they got off, they continued through the tunnel until they got in front of the door (the supercomputer activation had also turned on the lighting in the tunnel). Before crossing the threshold, Jacket asked Ed one last thing.

Jacket: **"Okay, we're almost there. Before crossing this door, do I have your word that you won't say anything to anyone, especially the authorities?"**

Ed: **"Uff... I promise, can we come in now?"**

Jacket: **"Okay okay, what a rush..."**

So he made Ed move in before he did.

As he crossed the threshold, Ed felt that his brain was ready to burst: in front of him, science fiction movies were a reality.

Ed: **"W-wha...what the hell is this place!?"**

Jacket: **"Oh nothing, just a quantum supercomputer simulating a virtual world we can physically enter, thanks to that big scanner"** he said, pointing to the supercomputer and the scanner respectively. **"Just everyday stuff, huh?"**

It took another handful of seconds for Ed to recover from the shock. All this could not be false: Jacket certainly would never have enough money to create all this, just to make a joke. And it wouldn't have been part of his kind of jokes anyway.

While Ed was still shocked, Jacket woke up the supercomputer from the standby phase in which he left it two days ago.

Jacket: **"So...do you want the short explanation or the detailed one?"**

Ed: **"...I'll choose the detailed one."**

Jacket: **"Okay, then come here, because you'll get the explanation directly from the creator of all this: Waldo Schaeffer."**

So he showed him all the video recordings of the scientist's diary.

Ed: **"So: that person in the clips says he's the creator of a military project, funded first by terrorists and then by the Italian and French governments, about two supercomputers containing virtual worlds?"**

Jacket:** "Exactly".**

Ed: **"...If it's a joke, it's really well done. Come on, this is pure science fiction! How can you prove to me that all this is true?"**

Jacket: **"And this is where I wanted you! Are you ready to make a nice trip to paradise? Or rather, Xanadu?"**

Ed: **"Are you asking me to get into that giant thing?"** he said pointing to the scanner.

Jacket: **"Yeah"** he said, and then opened and drained a can of soda he had brought with him.

Ed: **"Oh, no no no no no, not even dead. It's potentially dangerous, not to mention that (if this story is true) we're breaking government laws! Do you have any idea what kind of trouble we're in danger of going through?"**

Jacket: **"If I have any idea? Yes, indeed. If I'm interested? Not. Even. A. Little. ****Oh, come on, I can assure you that it's not dangerous; I'll keep an eye on you from this monitor station, and as soon as something strange happens I'll bring you back here in one piece, okay? I may be crazy, but I've never left you alone in trouble, and you know that."**

If there was one thing Ed wasn't capable of, it was not trusting his friends: in the end he knew that Jacket, apart how reckless he was, had always helped him, as a true friend as he was.

Ed: **"... All right, I'll trust you. Open that scanner and let's get it over with."**

Jacket: **"Thank you, Ed."** He then took a long breath

**"Good, Ready to go!"**

Jacket, in the grip of adrenaline, began to perform the process of virtualization, exclaiming out loud every step taken.

_**"TRANSFER: INITIALIZED!"**_

Edward then entered the open scanner, which shone with light from the inside. Once he layed inside it, the scanner doors were closed. Inside Ed the nervousness increased more and more.

_**"SCANNER: INITIALIZED!"**_

A gust of hot air hit Ed's body as he was slightly lifted from the steel wall of the scanner.

_**"VIRTUALIZATION!"**_

Suddenly Ed felt that his body was being sucked in as he lost the sensitivity of each limb.

Then a flash of white light blinded him, and he felt a pain in his backside shortly afterwards, as he regained his senses.

Once Edward recovered, he felt first that he was not breathing. Or rather, he didn't feel the need to do it. Then he opened his eyes, to understand where he was.

The name Xanadu translated into "paradise". And never was the name more appropriate for the show that Ed saw around him.

A landscape consisting of a high white mountain on the horizon, while the ground was covered with lush vegetation, and large trees whose shape was identical to that of the bonsai. Also to his right was a huge lake whose water was perfectly clear.

This natural paradise, however, had a unique element: here and there stood out the imposing white towers, surrounded by a pearl white aura, while from the black base departed huge cables, similar to roots, which crossed the entire territory; the highest and most impressive tower was at the top of the mountain.

At this point Edward, remembering to have a body, he looked at himself: his usual clothes were replaced by a metal corset, located on top of a tabard, which he had depicted on top of a phoenix that had a fleur de lis in his beak; his feet were worn by leather boots and his hands by gloves, reinforced by small metal plates. Finally, he had a perfect replica of a long sword at the scabbard; the knob was completely gold, with something that looked like a sapphire stuck in the hilt. On the long blade, on the other hand, there was an inscription reciting "Ad Maius Bonum".

Ed: **"... Fantastic".**

Suddenly a voice spoke out of nowhere; the intonation was strangely familiar...

**"So, Ed, you're there? You're all whole?"**

Phew, that was Jacket's voice.

Ed: **"er... yes, I think I'm fine..."**

Jacket: **"YES, FUCK! I did it! So Ed, now do you believe me?"**

Ed: **"..I think so! This place is amazing, it's incredible!"**

Jacket: **"Okay, now just give me a second"** said Jacket euphoric, and then type in various commands on the keyboard; a window opened on the desktop showing what Ed saw in first-person; in particular Jacket saw the huge tower located above the mountain.

Jacket: **"Wow... That Waldo Schaeffer, when he created all this, remembered perfectly the face of his father!"**

In addition, a map was opened showing Xanadu in his entirety. It was practically a large island suspended in thin air.

Jacket: **"Okay Ed, it's time to give you some information: first of all, on my screen you're represented by a kind of card, similar to the tarot cards, which names you "The Protector".**

_What a shitty name._

**"Also this kind of card tells me your... hit points, the weapon you have with you, and a special skill called "Heal"? Strange, the map doesn't show about any other entities..."**

Ed: **"So on Xanadu I'm a sort of paladin... Cool!"**

Jacket: **"Oh, you mean that RPG character for the pure innocent Samaritans? Oh well, if you're fine with it..."**

At that moment the map began to highlight the tower above the mountain, marking it with the name "Lyoko Link".

Jacket: **"Uh... Ed, the map tells me about the tower on the top of the mountain, calling it "Lyoko Link". Do you mind checking it out?"**

Ed: **"And you ask me? I want to explore everywhere. I'm going!"**

It took about the equivalent of 10 minutes on earth for Ed to reach the base of the tower.

Ed: **"Okay Jacket, I'm in front of the tower, what do I do now?".**

Jacket: **"Mhhhhhh...well, it's a virtual world, isn't it? Try to go through the wall."**

Edward was initially unbelieving: how can you go through objects? But that wasn't the real world, so he might try it as well.

Ed, despite his scepticism, managed to pass through the black wall, like in Harry Potter, thus reaching over a circular platform that illuminated the entire interior of the tower. The platform had drawn above a symbol similar to an eye made of concentric signs. And then he decided to go ahead, positioning himself in the middle of the platform. As soon as he got there, a screen appeared out of nowhere, suspended in the void, showing only one inscription:

_**CODE: _**_

Ed: **"Um, Jacket? I'm inside the tower and in front of me there's a screen that says "CODE:_". What do you think I should do?"**

Jacket: **"Yeah, I can see that too. ... You know what? Try touching the screen, like on a smartphone touchscreen."**

Ed:** "Are you sure? All right..."**

He hesitantly pressed his hand on the screen: at that moment the sentence shown on the display completed itself, becoming:

_**CODE: LYOKO LYNK**_

* * *

_**MEANWHILE, IN SPACE...**_

A satellite circling the Earth's orbit seemed to receive a very powerful signal from Rome; this caused the satellite's antenna to rotate, and then send a second signal, of equal strength, in France, to Paris.

* * *

_**PARIS, ABANDONED FACTORY**_

That room had been dark for 16 long years. Until now.

From nowhere, a series of huge metal cylinders, whose circuits shone gold, rose from the steel floor.

In another room upstairs, the now dusty monitor had been turned on again after a long time.

The supercomputer, hidden beneath that abandoned factory, had been rebooted.

* * *

_**PARIS, SCEAUX**_

**"Mom, Dad, I'm home!"**

That's what a 13-year-old girl said when she crossed the threshold of her house, located in a quiet street in Sceaux. Since it was summer, there was still enough light outside to clearly see the girl's physical appearance: her characteristic feature was her straight pink hair, long up to her shoulders. The rest of her face was made with emerald green eyes and small nose and mouth. His clothing consisted of a dungarees under which there was a soft pink T shirt. The feet were worn by sneakers, completely white.

**"Welcome back, Maya!"**

To reach her on the threshold came a young woman of 30 years, whose hair, pink like that of her daughter, were shorter, reaching the base of the neck. Always like her daughter, she had green eyes. Her clothing, on the other hand, consisted of light blue jeans and a white blouse.

After welcoming her daughter, the woman said aloud, facing upstairs:

**"Dinner is at the table!"**

And in response she received:

**"I'm coming, Aelita, just give me a second!"**

The phrase was spoken by a blond, bespectacled man, intent on writing up the new school schedule for the new students who would arrive this year.

The man was named Jeremy Belpois, 32. A man dressed in khaki pants and a red-brown t-shirt (in winter he usually wore a blue sweater, as he did as a boy). By profession he was a computer teacher at Kadick boarding school, where he had studied as a boy, and had met his wife Aelita.

But the strangest part was how he met her.

Well, it all started when he found her trapped in a supercomputer hidden under an abandoned Renault factory near the boarding school. Jeremy then decided, along with his 3 other friends, to get Aelita out of the supercomputer and defeat the artificial intelligence that hindered them: XANA.

All of this was been over since 16 years now, and now the Belpois family was enjoying the quiet worldliness of life.

But this tranquility was interrupted by a bizarre fact: suddenly all the lights, appliances and Jeremy's computer went out suddenly, and so it happened in all the houses; A gigantic blackout had hit the whole city of Paris.

Jeremy: **"What the..."**

Even more bizarre was that, just as the blackout had suddenly come, so too had the current returned, rekindling the lights of the city of love.

So Jeremy decided to go downstairs, both because it was time for dinner and because he wanted to talk to Aelita about this anomaly.

Jeremy: **"Aelita, this is bizarre..."** he said as he sat down at the table.

Aelita: **"Yes, this blackout is particularly...unusual".**

That's when Maya took the floor:

Maya: **"Well, there's definitely a logical explanation: the problem must have happened at the main control unit, and they simply solved it quickly."**

Jeremy and Aelita, after a few seconds of scepticism, calmed down: surely there was a completely normal explanation for the blackout. After all, XANA had been defeated, so it couldn't have been him.

So they started talking of this and that while they were enjoying dinner; the Belpois family had immediately returned to their usual serenity.

* * *

Jacket saw that a new writing appeared on the screen:

_**"LYOKO" SUPERCOMPUTER REACTIVATED**_

Jacket: **"Oh, shit..."**

Ed: **"What happened?"**

Jacket: **"I'll explain later, now I'll take you back to earth."** he said, and then type in the commands to devirtualize Edward.

After about a minute, the scanner doors reopened, and from there came Ed, who was breathing anxiously, before he put his feet on the ground and checked that everything was fine. He was still alive and well.

Jacket: **"Are you all right over there?"**

Ed: **"Yes, I'm fine... Wow, that was great! Well, what did you want to tell me?"**

Jacket didn't say anything, but he motioned to come to him. Edward reached him and, to his surprise, he read the sentence that appeared on the screen.

Ed: **"You mean that..."**

Jacket: **"Yes. When you touched the screen, you must have entered a code that remotely reactivated the supercomputer in Paris."**

Ed: **"Really?"**

Jacket: **"I think so."**

The duo decided to turn off the prototype supercomputer and go back up, before continuing to talk about what happened.

Back on the street, they noticed that there were many people outside the house: on the balconies, on the sidewalks, everyone was talking about an anomalous fact: the whole Rome had suffered a total blackout, but lasted only a few seconds. And the same fact has occured in Paris, at the same time.

Jacket and Edward didn't take long to do two plus two.

Ed: **"Do you think it's due to...?"**

Jacket: **"Yes, totally."**

So they grabbed their bikes and started to pedal along the way. For a few minutes, there was complete silence between them, a silence that was then broken by Edward.

Ed: **"So... what do we do? About the whole thing..."**

Jacket: **"...I'm not intentioned to abandon everything. I need to know more, to see that French supercom-"**

Suddenly Jacket had a flash of genius comparable to a Eureka exclaimed by a Greek coming out of the bathtub.

Jacket:** "Tell me Ed. Since you're moving to Paris, what school are you going to?"**

Ed: **"Well, my parents enrolled me in a certain Kadick boarding school as an internship student. Why do you ask?"**

Jacket: **"Because according to Waldo Schaeffer's diary, that boarding school is very close to the abandoned factory where the supercomputer is located. It's even connected to the sewerage system under the school".**

Ed: **"You're not gonna ask me to go to that factory, are you?"**

Jacket: **"And leave all the fun to you? No fucking way! I think we'll meet again at the Kadick."**

Ed: **"Oh and tell me, how do you plan to get you transferred there? I don't think your cousins want to move."**

Jacket: **"I know, in fact, they're not moving in with me. Let's just say it's time to.. stabilize a couple of relationships..."**

Ed: **"You mean... your parents, who are in Paris?"**

Jacket: **"More precisely, my father; my mother...well, you already know the whole mess. Anyway, don't worry, I'll do it".**

Edward initially seemed incredulous, as usual, but then he showed a big smile

Ed: **"All right then, I'll see you in Paris. After all, am I or am I not "The Protector" who will have to protect you... from yourself?"**

Jacket: **"Hahaha, don't make me laugh..."**

Riding the bike, while the sun was setting on the horizon, the two friends gave each other a sound of five.

Jacket: **"Anyway, as for that little bet on the phone... you know what? It's still my treat."**

Ed: **"Are you sure?"**

Jacket: **"You entered a virtual world, more or less risking your neck bone, didn't you? I won't respect the law and i'm often being an asshole, but I do have the sense of merit!"**

Ed: **"Thanks Jacket, and anyway...who arrives first will give the other 10 euros!"** Edward said and then shoot at full speed on the bike.

Jacket: **"You say so? Well, we'll see about that!"**, so he shot too.

In the end, neither of them won the bet...


	4. Chapter 4: First Encounters

**I'M FINALLY BACK! I know, i know, it's been a veeery looong time since the last update, but you know: school and shits.**

**Now you can enjoy my fourth chapter! As always, write reviews, advices and that-kind-of-things.**

* * *

**TWO WEEKS LATER...**

Ahh, Paris: city of love, of art (not all of them), of culture... and also of one of the most arrogant and unpleasant people in the world, after the Americans: the French.

And their language felt heavy in that crowded and chaotic airport, where Jacket had landed that Sunday morning. As he had promised Edward, he had found a way to move to Paris.

The sad thing (not for Jacket) in all of this, however, was precisely the means Jacket used to succeed in the undertaking.

_FLASHBACK_

_It was 9:00 p.m. By now most people had finished dining, and spent time with their families, work permitting._

_At that moment Jacket, as usual, was in front of the PC, busy creating his own ... "personal maid" on Custom Maid 3D 2. In his head, however, there was a fixed nail: call his father and ask him to help him move to Paris, so he could have a good excuse to investigate the supercomputer hidden under the factory._

_His father called him regularly, at least twice a month, so that he always knew how he was doing and to remind him that, even if at a distance, he loved him, and he loved him a lot. The mother, on the other hand...never spoke of her son, she had never called him, as if he did not exist for her... Patiently, Jacket only needed his father's help to succeed._

_So he decided to give up the PC, took his mobile phone and dialed his father's number: he had already prepared the things to say; he wasn't an authoritarian father, so it would have been even easier to convince him._

_Jacket: *Waiting_

_Dad: __**"... Hello! How are you, Richard? Do you have any news? Usually i'm the one who calls you..."**_

_Jacket: __**"Hello, Dad. Well, actually, there's something new, and a big one too: I want to come and live in Paris."**_

_Dad: __**"...Really, son? And tell me, why do you suddenly want to come to Paris? You're not well in Rome, something bad happened...?"**_

_Jacket: __**"No, don't worry, I'm fine. See...I want to try to... "fix everything up" if you know what i mean..." **__ Never was a lie told with so much confidence and lack of guilt..._

_Dad: __**"Of course, I understand. And I'm very proud of you, Richard. I'm really happy that you want to reconnect your bonds with us..."**_

_Jacket: __**"Thank you Dad. Oh, and, I need a favor, for all of us..."**_

_Dad: __**"Of course Richard, go ahead..."**_

_Jacket: __**"Well, see, I would like to attend a boarding school as an internship student: you know, I wouldn't like to crash you at home, especially for mom. And I know you don't have a lot of space.**_

**_The boarding school is Kadick College: the school is very good and the cost of tuition is very affordable. I'm also about an hour away from your home."_**

_Dad: __**"... All right, I'll sign you up for boarding school these days. Do your cousins know about this?"**_

_Jacket: __**"Yes, I have already spoken to them, and they have already made me a plane ticket to Paris, leaving in 3 days; they are also happy for me.**_

_Dad: __**"Promise me to come and visit us, okay?"**_

_Jacket: __**"Okay, count on it."**_

_Dad: __**"Okay, so I'll see you in three days at the airport. Good night, Richard. I love you."**_

_Jacket: __**"... Me too, Dad. Good night."**_

_Once the call was over, he went back to the PC._

_So: green hair or red hair?_

Yeah. A big lie in the form of telephone conversation. But now was not the time to think about these things; he had to find his father, to get out of that chaos that was the airport.

In the main hall there was a whirlwind of people: businessmen heading to bars for a coffee, families welcoming relatives who had just landed, people queuing for check-in or waiting for their suitcase to appear on the conveyor belt. For Jacket's taste, the place was too crowded. He preferred quieter places.

While he was standing, leaning against the black suitcase, waiting for his father to show up, one hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder, even though the grip was not strong. Jacket then turned around, and then ended up in the tight and warm embrace of a man in his mid-30s, with brush blonde hair, blue eyes, dressed in brown jeans, beige turtleneck, black leather shoes and brown leather jacket. More British clothing than you could: it was definitely Henry Allen, Richard Allen's father.

Henry: **"Hahaha, Richard! Show yourself... My God, 10 years since I last saw you... you've grown up so much!"**

Jacket: **"Thanks, Dad, but i think you'll want to keep seeing me alive.."** said Jacket, feeling almost suffocated by his father's embrace.

Henry: **"Right, I'm sorry! Well, are you ready?"**

Jacket: **"Yes, Dad."**

The drive to Kadick boarding school had been quiet. His father kept telling him about life in Paris, and how he would have liked it. Jacket mostly nodded or gave short answers; he didn't have much to say, and certainly supercomputers and virtual worlds were not exactly what he wanted to talk about...

Henry: **"Well, It seems that we have arrived."**

The machine stopped at the entrance to the college content, which was a blue navy gate.

Henry: **"Now all we have to do is go to the presidency office and finish the enrollment."**

Having said that, this father and son went to the presidency office. The college was very large, since it contained the classes, the cafeteria and the dormitories. There was also a large green area consisting of a little forest.

As they passed under the porch overlooking the courtyard, Jacket noticed that there were a lot of students, of various origins, who were intent on having coffee at the machine, who were chatting with friends, who were headed to class or to the dormitory. In particular, however, he had noticed one person in particular: a girl dressed with a salopette and pink hairs, was passing by. Overall, she was very familiar with a certain person...

_That girl looks a lot like Waldo Schaeffer's daughter... could she be a possible granddaughter!? Because if that's the case, then Aelita Schaeffer is alive, and so out of the supercomputer..._

Never stop to think so much, especially when you stare at a person: because the result was that Jacket, while eyeing the girl, ended up seen by the latter; the hazel eyes collided with the green eyes, in a series of penetrating glances, for a fraction of a second.

The fight between glances ended very soon, however, having reached the secretariat, where a young secretary allowed him to enter the headmaster's office. This office was very well cleaned and organized, and behind the desk full of papers there was the headmaster of the college: a visibly elderly man, bald and with a beard worthy of Dr. Freud. Apparently, he looked like a calm person.

: **"Oh, good morning, Mr. Allen, and you must be Richard. Pleased to meet you, I am Mr. Poulain, dean of this college. Your father has already completed the actual enrollment, now i just need your signature, and then I'll give you the keys to your room, the class schedules and the institute rules."**

Breakfast at 7.00 a.m., lunch at 12.30 p.m., dinner at 7.00 p.m., curfew at 8.45 p.m. Sunday is free day, and the curfew is moved to 21.45. It is strictly forbidden to stay in dormitories between 8.00 and 16.30.

_I think I will end up ignoring all this._

Mr. Poulain: **"Well, is everything clear?"**

Jacket: **"Yes, sir."**

Mr. Poulain: **"Perfect then: I wish you a pleasant stay at the Kadick, and welcome to France."**

Having done this, Jacket and his father went to his new room; when he opened the door, he could see that the room consisted of a bed with an integrated chest of drawers, a wardrobe and a fairly large desk, located under the window.

Henry: **"Well, I really have to go now, son. It was good to see you after so long."** said the father hugging his son.

Jacket:** "... For me too, dad.**

After releasing him from his grip, his father said, **"I love you, Richard. Take care, okay?"**

Jacket: **"Aye."**

Then the father left the dormitories, and then went back to his car, going home.

Jacket meanwhile set up his room: he put his clothes in the closet and in the chest of drawers, and connected the PC and its various equipment to the sockets located under the desk, and then reconfigured everything.

When the accommodation was over, Jacket noticed that it was already noon: it would be better to go to the cafeteria, also taking advantage of it to explore the complex of the college.

To go to the cafeteria you had to cross the courtyard, where Jacket noticed two things: the first is that the mysterious pink haired girl was not around anymore. The second is that, in her place, he saw an even more familiar person in the distance: that double-sleeved jersey, those short blond hair, and that look of a good boy who perhaps went to church on Sundays...

Yes, it was him.

So Jacket sneaked up behind the boy, and then said to him in his ear, out loud:

Jacket: **"You can't run away from me!"**

The boy whispered as if he had had a thunderous heart attack, then turned around and noticed his best friend's overflowing grin.

Ed: "**Holy cow...Jacket! Don't ever do that again!"**

Jacket: **"Come on, I couldn't resist seeing you in a panic..."**

They both ended up laughing loudly, then heading together into the cafeteria: a swarm of students standing in line to receive their tray of food (today's menu: sausages, mashed potatoes and salad.) and then gather in groups at various tables.

Jacket and Ed didn't take long to get their tray, and then they both took their seats at an empty table.

Ed: **"Well, Jacket, what's France like?"**

Jacket: **"If it's all like Paris then it's a sadness: people seem to have a permanent broom in their asses, as well as always being musons and haughty."**

Ed: **"... Today you're optimistic, huh? Come on, it's not so bad after all: the food is good and, above all, there's the best part: the girls!"**

Jacket: **"... Why, what do the French have that is so special compared to, i don't know, a redhead Scottish?"**

Ed: **"Well, the French are well-behaved, good-looking, elegant...the Scots are a bit... "Strong in personality"..."**

Wasn't that the best thing of a Scottish Lassie? (Lass = girl)

Jacket: **"... Oh, well, if you're happy so..."**

The two friends finished the meal, obviously incomparable to Italian cuisine (even if it was always better than the stuff you eat in America ... the shivers ...)

At a certain point Jacket tilted her head, with a very comical attitude, to see beyond Ed; at two tables away she sat all alone with a decidedly unusual girl: in addition to her very light complexion, almost milky white, she had long black socks, knee-length boots, skirt, steampunk-themed T-shirt, black and gold sleeveless gloves, and a beret on her head. In addition, the hair was completely dyed purple, gathered in a braid, but leaving a fringe towards the left eye.

It looks like she came out of Custom Fucking Maid 3D. In a very positive sense.

The girl was intent, looking between dormant and melancholic, to read a big book: "Necronomicon". Jacket, even if he wasn't a big fan, knew the stories of Lovecraft's occult.

Jacket then returned to his normal position, and then asked Ed:

Jacket: **"It seems that someone raided Area 51 before September 20: who's that gothic-like lolita at two tables away from us?"**

And, perplexed, he turned to see who Jacket was referring to, then explained what he knew.

Ed: **"I actually know very little about her: I just know that her name is Sylviane Cellier, and she's in the same class as me. I've never seen her with other classmates and she doesn't seem very sociable. She dresses in a "special way". She is also heterochromatic, so she has different coloured eyes. Finally, she seems to be passionate about the occult and horror."**

Jacket: **"And tell me, is she French?"**

Ed: **"100%, even if the parents aren't from Paris."**

Jacket decided to give up on it; something told him that he would soon have to deal with that very particular girl.

While he had opened the can of cherry soda and was about to drink, a clear voice, with a clear and innocent tone, suddenly spoke:

**"Hi Ed! Can I sit with you?"**

Ed: **"Of course Maya, come on!"**

Jacket then turned to see who this Maya was, and with his shock saw the girl he had noticed this morning when he was going to the presidency: the possible daughter of Aelita Schaeffer.

Jacket seemed totally impassive and calm while drinking a sip of soda, but inside his mind he said a sentence of two words.

.._Wee Shite..._

Ed: **"I present you Maya Belpois, a friend and classmate of mine."**

Maya:** "It's a pleasure!"** he said smiling, almost like a little angel.

Jacket then greeted her, with a tone of voice between bored and careless.

Jacket: **"Jacket. My pleasure."**

Maya: **"Do you really call yourself "jacket"? "**

Jacket: **"Nae, that's my nickname for calling myself."**

Maya nodded in understanding.

Maya: **"Okay... Jacket. Ed she told me you moved here because your parents live in Paris. But you enrolled as an internship student, can I ask why?"**

Jacket: **"Well, let's say that... I'd rather not talk about it."**

Maya: **"Oh... All right, as you wish."**

In the end, the trio that had just formed ended up discussing more and less; or rather, Ed and Maya spoke, while Jacket followed passively, at most responding to a few jokes. Every now and then, however, his eye would end up watching that girl, Sylviane, always busy on reading the Necronomicon.

After a while, around 1:30 p.m., people started to leave the cafeteria; on Sundays they went out into the city, or stayed in boarding schools, dormitories or the courtyard.

Edward, once the trio had left the cafeteria, said goodbye to Maya, and then walked with Jacket in the courtyard.

Jacket: **"Tell me Ed, didn't you notice anything about your little friend?"** he said in a low voice, making Ed understand that it was better not to talk aloud about the subject.

Ed: **"Hmm? What are you talking about?"**

Jacket then stopped and breathed a sigh of bother; either he was paranoid or Ed was completely blind and forgetful. Then he took his cell phone and opened an encrypted file from him, and then showed Edward Waldo Schaeffer's family photo.

Jacket: **"Look at the scientist's daughter: doesn't she remind you of anyone at all?"**

It took him a good minute before he realized the resemblance between Maya and the little girl in the photo.

Ed: **"Hey, wait a moment - you mean Maya is Aelita Schaeffer's daughter?!"**

Jacket: **"Good morning, wee dumb! Of course she is, the resemblance is too much and few people dye their hair pink; especially at 4 years old. So, if Maya is Aelita's daughter, it means that the latter has left the supercomputer. And since you can't go out alone, without an external operator at the controls, it means that someone, quite a few years ago, used the supercomputer before us!"**

Ed: **"In fact you're right, it makes sense. But let's not throw ourselves into the abandoned factory immediately: we should wait a week, so we mix among the other students, as to arouse less suspicion if we see each other around. We will also use this time to learn to move around the school and its surroundings, and we can also keep an eye on Maya, if you like. All right?"**

Jacket: **"It's not my style, but this time I agree; for now it's better to be cautious. One more thing, Ed."**

Ed: **"Yes?"**

Jacket: **"Do you know who Maya's father is?"**

Ed: **"Sure: Jeremy Belpois, our IT teacher."**

Jacket: **"Perfect, I think i'll be watching him a little bit too; you never know."**

The duo decided to go back to the dormitory and ended the discussion here; they would have done as they had decided.

ABANDONED FACTORY

* * *

It was difficult to retrieve the fragments scattered over the Internet, but now it was all in one piece.

That program that had been used against him had not completely liquidated him: he had made it in time to split into pieces and spread them on the global network, ready to gather them as soon as someone had turned on the supercomputer again. After all, it was a multi-agent system, an advanced I.A. It was hard to get rid of her.

But hestill needed some time to get back on her feet, though. Right now she could do very little.

A symbol appeared on the screen on the control room monitor

_That symbol._

XANA was back.


	5. Chapter 5: Run boy Run

_**Aye, here's your fifth chapter. Enjoy n Review!**_

* * *

1 WEEK LATER

As agreed with Edward, Jacket had waited a week in order to settle in, avoiding to become suspicious and, as a first step, keep an eye on Maya Belpois and her father. All the information collected was reported in properly encrypted documents , hidden inside Jacket's computer (as a precaution they were copied to an external hard disk, also encrypted, so as not to lose data even if the PC were to go to shit.)

Maya was an extremely quiet and kind girl, almost a little angel who came down to earth; she also had an excellent average in all subjects (while Jacket, apart from computer science and languages, did not commit more than necessary in school), making her the genius of the whole class. In short, the perfect daughter that all the parents would ever desire. For the rest she was tremendously normal and worldly, a good girl like thousands.

And surely she had taken her intelligence from her father: Jeremy Belpois, computer science teacher, former student at Kadick. That man was one of the few (in Jacket's opinion) competent professors who cared about his students: in addition to clear explanations, he also made sure to draw up tests appropriate to the levels of preparation of his students! (Jacket, as a self-taught, was ahead of the basic program, so Prof. Belpois had given him exercises and checks at his height). He was practically the teacher every student would want to have in every subject.

Jacket and Edward had certainly not spent their time just keeping an eye on father and daughter: outside of classes they had explored the entire school complex, from top to bottom, learning every corner, coming to discover the two passages that led to the sewerage system (which connected the college to the factory, and then to the supercomputer): one was located behind a door in the boiler room, accessible from the gym. The other was a manhole in the park of the college, in a point relatively well hidden by the surrounding trees. All in all, two quite discreet places.

Also, in this long week, Jacket had started an extracurricular parkour course, which is held in the gym as well as martial arts courses. If someone had asked him why, Jacket would have replied that he was simply interested, nothing more. Actually, the reason was quite different.

Ever since he turned off the supercomputer in Italy, and then left, Jacket had begun to fear that governments might have discovered his little intrusion into the Carthage Project; he couldn't be sure he wasn't (even partially) tracked when he woke up the Parisian supercomputer at a distance. And if government agents were after him, Jacket certainly didn't want to be caught. So he chose to improve his speed, agility and endurance through parkour, the ultimate acrobatic escape.

Now the duo was ready to explore the abandoned factory.

* * *

**SUNDAY 8 SEPTEMBER, MIDNIGHT**

New torch: present.

Crowbar: here.

Cutters to cut any wires: there are.

Bag to contain everything: prepared.

_Chat:_

_Jacket: __**Are you ready?**_

_Edward: __**Yes. Let's go.**_

Bag on his shoulder, Jacket opened the door very slowly, and then silently crossed the threshold finding himself in the dark corridor of the men's dormitory. Three doors away was Edward who, although in the dark, was visibly tense.

Jacket simply hinted to follow him, ending up both going down, one step at a time, the stairs connecting the dormitories and the ground floor. They did not have to worry about a possible patrol by the gymnastics professor, since he had already done it at eleven o'clock, and then went to sleep in his room, which was also present in the men's dormitory.

After a couple of minutes of slow movements, they left the building and found themselves in the courtyard; destination: manhole in the park.

Having already visited it, and being deserted at this hour of the night, it didn't take long for them to arrive in front of the old manhole encrusted with rust. And he took the manhole and lifted it without great effort, and then laid it next to the opening that led to the sewers.

Jacket came down first, without any hesitation, while Edward, when it was his turn, was more reluctant: it is not that he had this great desire to get into the stinking sewer. But knowing that that was the only way to get to the factory, Ed was convinced that he would soon get used to it.

As soon as the duo put their feet on the ground, he was hit by the stench of sewage water. The sewerage system had Jacket at his disposal and he grimaced with disgust, continuing forward, while Edward, with the collar of his shirt covering his nose and mouth, followed him behind. Having consulted both the map of the area and of the sewerage system, they had discovered that it was enough to go straight to the great grating that indicated the end of the canal. A road that was easy to remember.

After about ten meters, Jacket saw three skateboards and a scooter leaning against the wall. The look was old and worn, but it still seemed to work.

Edward: **"What the hell are skateboards and a scooter doing in the sewers?"**

Jacket: **"Well, since I don't think people use skateboards in sewers, all that does is convince me even more that Jeremy Belpois and other people, quite a few years ago, discovered and used the supercomputer in the factory."**

Edward had nothing to say about it, as the reasoning was spinning. In the meantime, Jacket took one of the skateboards and, after checking that it didn't break under its weight, he started to drive it forward.

Jacket: **"Come on, hurry up!"**

Edward twisted his eyes with a bummer (like "you're always the same..."), then took one of the remaining skateboards and followed Jacket.

They arrived at the end of the channel after about sixty meters. A ladder led to the surface, from where the moonlight entered. Jacket and Edward, once the skateboards had stopped, climbed the stairs and reached the bridge that crossed the Seine; in front of them was the entrance to the abandoned factory. The blue paint inscription saying "Renault" had been peeling and rusted for a long time.

Arriving in front of the entrance, the duo noticed that there were no stairs leading down, but there were cables hanging from the ceiling. Jacket stretched them out to check their condition: they were still usable. Being the only way down, they both came down using the cables as lianas, rubbing their skin against the rough surface.

Once they had landed in one piece, the two boys found themselves in the main room of the factory: steel support beams and columns, scrap and spare parts scattered everywhere, and the smell of abandonment characterized the environment. In front of the duo, moreover, there was an apparently working elevator, which seemed to lead only downwards.

Jacket: **"I think we should take the elevator."**

Edward: **"Are you sure it works...?"**

Jacket: **"If there were other people before us then it should work, shouldn't it?"**

Again, Ed couldn't argue with that, so the two of them got into the elevator and pressed the button to go underground to the first floor. When it stopped, a steel armoured door with a decidedly sci-fi design slowly opened, revealing the first large room of the underground supercomputer complex.

According to the phantom PDF file this room was called the "Laboratory": a much larger and more majestic version of that small monitor station in the Italian prototype. In the middle of the room there was a sort of circular support projecting a large hologram in the shape of a sphere, which according to Jacket seemed to represent the virtual world of Lyoko. The whole room was illuminated in a blue-green light.

A comfortable armchair was placed in front of the monitor station, consisting of four screens (one main and three peripherals), in addition to the integrated keyboard, and there was also a set of headphones, probably for communication with the virtual world, Jacket sat on the armchair, and then make two rounds in circles. Looking at the interface, you could see that it was more intuitive and functional than the prototype version.

Edward: **"...Wow... all this is even more incredible than the last time..."**

Jacket: **"You know how it is, it's the final version!"**

Jacket then started to sift through the file system again, discovering, in addition to a copy of Waldo Schaeffer's diary, a new diary, dating back to about 18-17 years ago. The owner of the diary was ... Jeremy Belpois.

In the diary the blonde bespectacled explained how he found the supercomputer while looking for spare parts for a robotics competition. After turning it back on, he discovered that inside there was "trapped" what looked like a virtual girl. And this was just the quietest part: XANA, the artificial intelligence that originally had to protect Lyoko and the supercomputer, had gone out of control, starting to attack the real world using the towers of the virtual world as a connection point. The events resulted in the involvement of three other guys: Odd Della Robbia, Ulrich Stern and Yumi Ishiyama. The virtual girl (initially named Maya, but who will later remember to call herself Aelita) was the only person who could counter XANA by inserting the Lyoko Code inside the tower controlled by the AI, so as to neutralize the attacks. And after each tower deactivated, a program called "Back to the Past" was launched, a real journey in time 24 hours before the attack, which erased the damage and memory of witnesses, except for the boys, since they had been scanned. There was only one limitation: the Return to the Past did not allow to resurrect any dead.

_Virtual worlds, evil AI and time travel? There could be a TV series about this!_

The original plan was to materialize Aelita in the real world, and then turn off the supercomputer; this only succeeded in half, since Aelita was pulled out of Lyoko, but XANA had managed to infect her with a virus, so that, if the supercomputer had turned off, Aelita would have died. So the only alternative was to destroy XANA once and for all.

The diary ended here.

Edward: **"Guys, what a story..."**

Jacket: **"Yeah. Now tell me, do you want to go for a second round, this time on Lyoko?"**

Edward: **"And you ask me that? We waited a week for this."**

Jacket: **"Perfect, so go downstairs to the scanner room."**

Edward: **"Copy that!"**

So Edward walked into the elevator and started going down to the scanner room, while Jacket had stayed at the monitor station, like last time. When the second armoured door opened, Ed stepped forward and found himself in the scanner room. The orange light reflected the metal of the three scanners resting on the circular wall, connected by large cables. In the middle of the room there was a kind of large mouthpiece, the cooker door was closed.

Jacket: **"Are you ready?"**

Edward: **"Yes."**

_**TRANSFER: INITIALIZED!**_

_**SCANNER: INITIALIZED!**_

_**VIRTUALIZATION!**_

Edward feeled again the feeling of suction and decomposition, but this time he landed on his feet, and the view no longer needed to get used to the virtual world. Unlike Xanadu, this time Edward found a kind of desert, consisting of large strips of earth, rocks, chasms and islets. In addition, the territory was attacked by white cables that pulsed with red energy. In the distance it was possible to see that the towers were almost identical in appearance to those of Xanadu, but were smaller and in greater quantity. Checking on himself, Edward realized that he had returned to the role of "The Protector", with his clothing and his long sword.

Jacket: **"Great, everything went as smooth as oil. So, a small refresher course: Lyoko is composed of 5 areas: Desert, Mountain, Forest, Bank and Sector 5, the central one. As you can see the environment is much larger but more barebones than Xanadu. For the rest, you're always in the shoes of your virtual avatar like a knight. To begin with, try reaching the tower closest to you, so you can see if you can retrieve any information from it. All clear?"**

Edward:** "Yes sir, I'm going now."**

When he reached his destination, Edward saw how the tower was located in the middle of a kind of basin, where the rock was a circular wall, like a large wall that protected the tower from the outside. In addition, rocks of various sizes sprang up from the ground. Remembering his previous visit to Xanadu, he immediately tried to enter the tower. But just as his hand began to cross the wall of the tower, the sound of a laser gunshot, followed by a piercing pain in the torso, made Ed's hand retract, and then scream with pain.

Edward: **"Aarghh! What the...?"**

Once Edward turned around, he saw before him one of the most disturbing things he had ever seen: a kind of rock cube walking on four small legs, and on each side had a kind of white eye, on which there was that symbol on the floor of the tower on Xanadu. And according to Jeremy Belpois' diary, that must have been the symbol of XANA.

Panicked, he ran behind the nearest rock, so he could take cover, but that creature stood still as he tried to shoot him, hitting only the surrounding ground. Once he was at the shelter, Ed spoke to Jacket, while he was in total panic.

Edward: **"Jacket, there's some sort of living laser-shooter block that doesn't seem to have any friendly intentions! It also has that kind of eye shaped symbol! What do I do?"**

Jacket was just as tense at the time: if what Edward was saying was true, then it meant that this XANA was still alive. And definitely pissed off.

Jacket: "**Shite! ... Listen to me Ed, you have a long sword there with you, don't you? And you also know how to use it, so try to get rid of it as soon as possible!"**

Edward: **"What!? Are you crazy? What if he's the one who's going to kill me?"**

Jacket: **"Don't worry about that, if your Life Points go down to 0, you should be devirtualized and brought back here to earth. Hurry up!"**

Edward: **"I... okay!"**

Edward then drawed his sword and took it with two hands, but it didn't come out of the shelter yet: he heard that the monster was slowly approaching, and he wanted to take advantage of the surprise factor. When he heard his footsteps very close, Edward tightened the handle firmly, and then came out of the hiding place and made a blind lunge: the blade passed the symbol of XANA even before the creature could do anything. As soon as he drew his sword, the monster exploded, thus vanishing into thin air.

Edward: **"I can't believe I did it! HAHA!"**

Jacket: **"Good job, super swordsman!"**

Edward: **"Thanks, Jack-"**

He didn't have time to thank that he heard heavy metal steps, followed by a monstrous verse, behind him. Keeping his guard up, Edward turned quickly to see another abomination: a kind of giant four-legged spider, or rather, four laser guns. The symbol of XANA was located on his white head. The being kneels down, and then points to Ed's two front legs-cannons.

There was no time to think, so the knight threw his sword, like a javelin, aiming at the symbol on the head of the creature; a move of the old medieval fencing manuals. On the other hand, the giant spider fired two shots from the two cannons.

Everything happened at the same time: the sword penetrated the creature's head, reaching up to the hilt, causing it to disintegrate like the previously destroyed cube. At the same time, the two laser bullets hit Edward in the chest, dissolving him completely.

Jacket: **"Hey Ed, are you there!? Ed!?"**

Edward: **"Yes Jacket, I'm still alive. My head is a little spinning, but otherwise it's all OK."** Edward said from the scanner room; being de-irtualized and getting out of the scanner after being shot to death wasn't a pleasant experience at all.

Jacket drew a long sigh of relief, and then said, **"Thank goodness... okay now come here to the lab."**

Jacket: **"I think we're deep in the shit: if there are those ... so around Lyoko, then it just means one thing, and that is that XANA has not been destroyed. Not definitely at least."**

Edward: **"If that's the case, I suggest we turn this hellish thing off right now!"**

Jacket:** "It's not so simple: according to the diary XANA has long since abandoned the supercomputer, running away in the net, so even if we turned off everything would not be enough anyway."**

Edward: **"So what alternatives do we have?"**

Jacket: **"I think we should keep him at bay until I find a solution."**

Ed: **"That's crazy! How can we think we have a chance against an out-of-control Artificial Intelligence and its monsters?"**

Jacket: **"Well, if five guys could resist XANA, why shouldn't we? And don't think that the police are an alternative: first of all they would never believe it. And even if they did, surely the government will also come with them, and I don't think they'll be very happy to know about our intrusion into their old business.**

Edward wanted to continue to argue, saying that alone they would have no hope, but he could not say anything; Jacket was right, the authorities were not an alternative, indeed they were a risk. And he certainly couldn't let XANA do the good and the bad weather, with the risk of killing innocent people...

Edward: **"... I hate to admit it, but you're right, Jacket, we can't rely on adults and turning off the supercomputer would have no effect, so we just have to fight it. You can count on me."**

Jacket, after what Edward said, smiled; a bit for fun, seeing Ed and his heroism that he had never fully understood. A little for joy, since he had a sure ally in this great mess.

Jacket then got out of his chair, and then patted Edward's shoulder.

Jacket: **"Thank you Ed."**

Edward:** "Sure, I can't leave you in trouble all alone; I'm "The Protector", remember?"**

Jacket: **"Yeah, yeah... well, now go back and go to sleep, I have to stay here for a while."**

Edward: **"And why?"**

Jacket: **"Didn't you hear Jeremy's diary? The Return to the Past will certainly be useful in this mess, but not to lose your memory you must have entered the scanner. So I have to have myself partially scanned, just to make sure to remember everything after each trip in time. Also I have to create a small application for my mobile phone: every time you activate a tower on Lyoko, ergo XANA will want to play, I will get a notification. So we won't be caught off guard."**

Edward: **"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."**

Jacket: **"Good night".**

Edward got on the elevator, while Jacket stayed in the underground complex for about an hour, the time to develop the small application and to scan himself.

Once again, Maya couldn't sleep. It wasn't really a disease, she just couldn't fall asleep early every now and then, and she also had a pretty light sleep. So, on that night with a clear sky, the pink haired girl stayed in front of the window, her arms resting on the windowsill, while she contemplated both the tranquility of the desert park and the nightlife of the city.

The tranquility of the park mentioned above was interrupted by a vision ... "unique": at that moment Maya was watching a person coming from the park, who had a shoulder bag and what looked like a crowbar in his hand. Maya instinctively took his cell phone and took a picture of the mysterious individual; for all she knew, he could be a thief, and if he was anything like that, a picture would certainly help the authorities to get him. The time to save the photo and the person had already disappeared.

Looking at the photo Maya was completely surprised: that mysterious boy was Edward's friend, Jacket! What was he doing outside the dormitory, at night, on his way back from the park, with a big bag and a crowbar? And why had he observed her the week before, when he had just arrived, as if he had already seen her somewhere?

Tomorrow morning, he would talk to his father about it first: he was one of their teachers, so maybe he could do something without having to bother the police.

Maya then put down her mobile phone and went back to bed. She knew that that night she wouldn't close her eyes at all.

* * *

**MONDAY 9 SEPTEMBER, 7.30 AM**

Maya had just finished having breakfast in the cafeteria, and now she was looking for her father: as usual she found him in front of the coffee machine; she hardly ever took any at home.

Maya: **"Good morning, Daddy."**

Jeremy: **"Good morning to you too, Maya. Tell me, what do you need?"**

Maya: **"Here, see ... it's a particular person..."**

Jeremy: **"Mh...Tell me, did you find a boyfriend?"** he said, giggling amusedly and light-heartedly

Maya: **"Wha- no no, nothing like that! Here... watch for yourself,"** said Maya, and then take out your cell phone and show off the photo you took last night.

Jeremy, recognizing his student in the picture, remained stony.

Jeremy: **"But...he's Richard, a student of mine!"**

Maya: **"That's right. See, I couldn't sleep last night so I was looking out the window. Suddenly I saw him coming from the park in front of the boarding school and he had a duffel and a crowbar, as in the picture."**

Jeremy's mind was on the verge of defibrillation at that moment: there was nothing in the park that could push a student to go there at night, most likely carrying a bag full of tools.

_Except for that thing..._

Maya: **"Daddy, are you all right?"**

Jeremy: **".. Yes Maya, it's okay. I'll take care of it, don't worry. Now go, before you're late for class."**

Maya was puzzled at first, but then smiled, **"You're right, Dad. See ya!"**

Jeremy: **"Goodbye Maya"**

The day went by in complete peace of mind: Jacket had not received any notification of any XANA attacks, so he had spent this Monday like any other.

Arrived in the evening, at about 7:30 p.m., Jeremy had just returned home in a hurry; he had to talk to Aelita about what had happened, and make an action plan.

Aelita was busy preparing dinner, as usual, when she heard the front door open.

Aelita: **"Welcome back, Jeremy."**

Jeremy: **"Hi Aelita. Sorry if I'm in a hurry, but I must immediately call Yumi Ulrich and Odd!"**

Aelita: **"What is it, you want to have a "reunion" dinner?"**

Jeremy:** "No, I don't, though I wish I did right now."**

Aelita: **"Come on, Jeremy, what's going on?"**

Jeremy: **"I'm afraid you'll find out right now..."** he said while he was starting a group video call from his laptop.

* * *

** YUMI AND ULRICH's HOUSE**

14 years ago, after a long and complicated relationship, Yumi and Ulrich had finally managed to declare themselves and to get engaged officially; it was time!

Ulrich, who finished both college and high school, was national and international Pencak Silat champion, who retired about 3 years ago.

Yumi, on the other hand, decided to go back to Japan for a while, so he could visit the relatives who remained there, and also think about a possible life in the archipelago of the Rising Sun. Unfortunately, extreme work rhythms and social pressure pushed Yumi to return to France after only a couple of years. And it was at that moment that, at the age of 26, they decided to get married. All their friends, in particular Aelita, Jeremy, Odd and William, were present. Ironically, Sissi was there too.

Now the couple, after the wedding, had decided to support themselves by opening a gym of Pencak Silat, run by both. As for having children... well, it's not an option yet contemplated.

Both were sitting on the couch, watching Doramas on their laptops; both hadn't changed that much: Yumi always wore black (he wore a tank top and tracksuit trousers at home.) and Ulrich, except for a little beard, was always the same; always lower than Yumi.

As the Dorama went on, a notification interrupted his vision: Jeremy was inviting them into a video call.

* * *

**ODD'S HOUSE**

Odd had never abandoned the "artistic" vein that had always distinguished him: in fact, after college, he enrolled in the faculty of the arts (and then made the equivalent of DAMS), and now worked as a videomaker for small directors, sometimes helping with the scripts. From an aesthetic point of view he hadn't changed a bit: blond and purple pyramid-shaped hair (probably kept up with industrial amounts of gel and lacquer), and clothes with damn extravagant colors (always purple, lilac and various shades). It was not for nothing called "Odd".

As for relationships... as usual: change girls with extreme ease.

While you were enjoying your Chinese take-away food, you can hear a ring from your mobile phone. Wondering who might disturb him while he was eating, I check the notification: it was a request for a video call from Jeremy, and there were also Yumi and Ulrich! How long had it been...

Odd left his meal to answer.

* * *

** JEREMY'S HOUSE**

Yumi: **"Jeremy, Aelita! What a pleasure to see you!"**

Ulrich: **"Our favorite brains! How long has it been... four years?"**

Ohdd: **"Einstein, Princess! Long time no see, huh?"**

Jeremy: **"Hi guys, it's a pleasure for me too. Unfortunately, I'm calling you because there's an emergency, and it's pretty big."**

Yumi: **"Emergency?! "**

Jeremy: **"I'll explain everything to you..."**

So Jeremy reported everything that had been told him by Maya, by wire and by sign; he also attached the "incriminated" photo.

Ulrich: **"Not to offend Jeremy, but are you sure you're not a little paranoid?"**

Odd: **"Yes, after all, XANA has been defeated, hasn't he? And then who's to say that guy knows about the supercomputer? "**

Jeremy: **"Even though XANA has been destroyed, we can't let anyone discover and use the supercomputer, much less a student of mine! That would be too dangerous! And then think about it, what else could there be in that park that would push a guy to go there at night, with a tool bag and a crowbar?"**

Odd: **"... well, you put it that way..."**

Aelita: **"Jeremy's right, that guy is too suspicious and we can't take that chance."**

Ulrich: **"So why don't you just try to talk to him in private, show him the picture and see what he's up to?"**

Jeremy: **"It's not that simple, Ulrich, if he just discovered the supercomputer then he'll most likely have found my diary too, so it's very likely he's already prepared in advance what to say in case i'd try to nail it; he's not only good at computer science, but he's also terribly smart."**

Odd: **"... So what do you propose, Einstein?"**

Yumi, who until then had been practically silent, had an idea.

Yumi: **"...maybe I have an idea..."**

* * *

**TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER, THIRD HOUR**

The day was practically like any other: no attacks, no oddities, just the stale school routine. Jacket was in computer class at that time, while Edward and Maya had a free hour, because of the indisposition of the history teacher. One fact, however, had given a grayer shade to the day: apparently a student had felt bad during the first hour, resulting in fever and nausea. Now he was under observation in the infirmary.

As for the computer lesson, they had a program to complete after a theoretical explanation made in the previous hour. At the same time Jeremy sat at the chair, apparently busy at the PC, but in reality, with the tail of his eye, he was spying on Jacket, waiting for the slightest suspicious action. Needless to say, Jacket didn't take long to complete the request, and for the moment he had started to create his second program of random generation of RPG characters: school or not, Lyoko or not, he always wrote game campaigns.

While he was absorbed in compiling the code, Jacket heard the phone vibrate in his jacket pocket. He stopped working on the program and extracted the phone secretly (being in the last files helped): One tower was reported as active, ergo: XANA was bored and wanted to have some fun.

_Fuck, right now!?_

Jacket: **"Sir, I need to use the bathroom, I don't feel too well."**

Jeremy, pretending that everything was normal, answered. **"Sure, go ahead."**

The boy then left, without any suspicion from the professor of computer science. As soon as the first one crossed the threshold, Jeremy opened a chat window on his PC, sending the following message:

**_"He's out, get ready."_**

In the meantime, Jacket, intent on leaving the science classrooms building, is wearing two Bluetooth headsets with integrated microphones, and then calling Edward. Edward was intent on talking to his neighbor on the desk, while Maya was intent on getting ahead with her homework. Hearing the ringing of his mobile phone, Edward answered:

Edward: **"Hello, Jacket, what's up?"**

Jacket: **"Apparently our XANA has activated a tower and wants to play, now I'm out of class and I'm going to the factory to check: you don't have to come with me, but keep the call open, you never know."**

Edward:** "... All right, I'll talk to you later,"** he said, and then put the phone face down on the counter, staying on the line. He went back to talking to his classmate.

Meanwhile, Jacket had just left the building and was on his way to the boiler room, when a cold, serious female voice spoke to him:

**"I'm sorry, I need some information, could you help me?"**

Jacket then turned to find himself in front of a Japanese woman, completely dressed in black: jeans, amphibians, t-shirt and leather jacket were all tarred. Jacket didn't know, but she was Yumi Ishiyama.

Jacket: **"Well, I'm afraid I'm not much help, if you want information the secretary's over there. Bye"**

_Okay, he's playing dumb..._

So the woman took Jacket by one shoulder, without squeezing it hard or tying it away.

Yumi: **"Oh well, I think i'll just need your information."**

A woman completely dressed in black who insists on asking for information, at the same time as he was leaving to go to the factory.

_Yes, it's time to get away!_

Jacket: **"And tell me: Government or Green Phoenix?"**

Yumi : **"What th-?"**

Yumi couldn't finish the sentence, since she was suddenly given a strong elbow in her stomach, which took her breath away and made her bend in two from the pain. In the meantime, she could see Jacket running away.

Yumi: **"H-hey, come back here right now!"**

At that moment Jacket didn't think about what he had around him: he had to run to the boiler room, as fast as he could, and then sow the chaser in the sewers. Not paying attention to his surroundings resulted in him bumping into a person as he turned the corner to cross the entire racing field and dropping it. He didn't have time for pleasantries. On the other hand, Yumi had not noticed the accident, taken as it was to chase the fugitive.

Whether it was a whim of fate or a joke of chance, the person Jacket had bumped into and dropped was nothing less than Sylviane, who had left chemistry class for a moment to have coffee at the machine, as she felt tired. As Sylviane was getting up, with her back sore from the fall, she noticed a boy crossing the race course in the distance, while a woman dressed in black was chasing him; both looked like they were heading toward the gym.

_"Wait, I know that guy: he was the newcomer who had been staring at me during my lunch break! ...but why is he running away from that woman?"_

If there was a defect in Sylviane, that was her tremendous curiosity: she couldn't ignore it all, she wanted to find out what was going on. But it was better to be discreet and not be seen.

Meanwhile Jacket, while his lungs were burning from the effort of the race, tried to contact Edward, having left the call open.

Jacket: **"ED, ANSWER TO ME, SHITE!"**

Edward, hearing Jacket's screaming voice, he responded quickly.

Edward: **"What's going on?"**

Jacket: **"It happens that an emo Japanese whore dressed in black is on my tail! Listen, I try to sow her in the boiler room, while you run to the park manhole and go to the factory!"**

Edward: **"Okay, I'm going now!"**, so he jumped out of the classroom, only to be interrupted by Maya.

Maya: **"Hey Ed, where are you going so fast?"**

Edward: **"Well, I forgot something very important, goodbye!"**, and ran away.

Maya didn't believe him at all.

_It'll be better follow him from a distance, this whole thing is taking a strange turn._

* * *

**MEANWHILE...**

Jacket had just arrived in front of the gym door, and opened it up. He had an advantage of about ten meters, so he immediately closed the door and put in front of us the first heavy object he had at hand, a basket of balls, in this way he would gain time and could disappear in the boiler room, and then go to the factory. Meanwhile, Yumi had very forcefully opened the door, entering just as the door leading to the boiler room had closed. Then he rushed to the boiler room; the boy had no chance to escape.

Meanwhile, Sylviane had waited for Yumi to force herself into the gym, and then snapped towards the open door and entered: there was no one inside. And since the door closest to the gym entrance was the one leading to the boiler room, the girls sensed that, most likely, Jacket and the mysterious chaser were in there. Then Sylviane stood behind the door, ready to enter at the most opportune moment.

Jacket: **"Well, I should have sown it! Now I just have to go to the fab-"**

This was what Jacket sayed as he opened the door leading to the secret passage to the sewers, only to find himself in front of a brown haired man, slightly bearded, dressed in a green T-shirt and moss-colored trousers. This man tackled Jacket on the ground, preventing him from going into the passage.

Ulrich: **"I'm sorry, fugitive, but your run ends here!"**

In response, Ulrich received a header from Jacket, who forced him to roll on the ground, stunned by the blow.

Jacket: **"Sorry, it's not personal, but I'm in a hurry"** he said in an overfocused tone, as he was preparing to knock him out with a nice kick to the head. Unfortunately, the plan was not successful, because as he was preparing to hit, Jacket was taken from behind and dragged away. That Japanese girl had finally caught him.

Yumi: "**For the record, thanks for the elbow and the race. Ulrich, call Jeremy and tell him we've got our fugitive! Meanwhile, I phone Odd and tell him to join us at the factory"** he said while taking his cell phone to make his call.

Ulrich: **"Got it!"**, then typed in Jeremy's number, waiting for him to answer.

* * *

**PARK**

The situation had definitely deteriorated.

Just as Ed had arrived in front of the manhole, after running with all the breath he had in his body, he had been grabbed and blocked by a weirdo dressed in purple and lilac, with unavailable blonde and purple hair in the shape of a pyramid. What other strange people were there in that boarding school?

And what's worse, Maya had followed him all this time, reaching him just as he was being caught up by the aforementioned weirdo. Now Edward also had an unwanted witness.

Edward: **"Who are you and what do you want to do?"**

Odd: **"Don't worry, man, I won't hurt you. I just want to know why you were coming here so quickly."** Looking at Maya, he realized how scary the resemblance to Aelita was. **"You know, you look just like your mother, a second princess!"**

Maya, embarrassed by that man's nickname, could not remain without explanations: what was going on, and how did this guy meet his mother?

Maya: **"Look, I want to know what's going on! Edward, why were you running so fast to the park? And you, can you know who you are and how you know my mother?"**

Odd: **"It's a long story, while I'm pleased, I'm Odd of the Robbia. If you want an explanation, I think you have to go down here"** he said, pointing to the sewers, and then let Edward go, open the manhole and start going down. **"Well, aren't you coming?"**

Edward thought that at that moment he didn't have many alternatives; if that man was really the Odd mentioned in Jeremy Belpois' diary, then he wasn't an enemy. And if XANA was attacking, it was best to go straight to the factory. So he joined Odd in going down to the sewers.

Maya: **"Are you telling me we have to go down to the sewers?"**

Ed: "**If you want to know what's going on, then you have to come down here"** he said before he went all the way down.

Maya on the one hand was disgusted to have to go down to such a disgusting place, but curiosity was much stronger than she was. So she came down too, without complaining further.

Once his feet were on the ground, Odd heard the phone ringing: it was Yumi.

Odd: **"Hello Yumi?"**

Yumi: **"Odd, I just caught our number 1 fugitive. Go to the factory, we'll meet you there."**

Odd: **"Don't worry, I'm already going, and surprise, I've got two more guys with me, including our Princess' daughter!"**

Yumi: **"What, there's also Maya, really!?... okay, bring them with you too."**

Odd: **"Yes, ma'am,"** the call was closed.

**"Well, follow me, I'll take you to a nice little place!"**

Edward knew what place he was talking about, so he followed him without saying anything, while Maya was the last one in line, determined to understand what the hell was going on.

* * *

**BOILER ROOM**

Ulrich: **"Jeremy, we got the kid."**

Jeremy: **"Perfect, now go to the factory, quick!"**

Ulrich:** "What's up, Jeremy!?"**

Jeremy: **"You won't believe it, but a student who was sick before is now as if he had been taken over, and is putting the school on fire and sword, while I'm barricaded in my class! I wish it wasn't, but... XANA is back!"**

Ulrich was more than just in shock at the time: they had destroyed him, XANA had been annihilated! Or at least, so they had believed...

Ulrich: "**Hang on Jeremy, I'm right there!"**, closed the call immediately, still in shock. **"Yumi, try to hurry up and get to the factory! I'm going to help Jeremy!"**

Yumi: **"Why, what's wrong with Jeremy?"**

Ulrich: **"A student is destroying the school as if he were possessed... I'm afraid XANA is back!"**

Yumi: **"...How!? That's impossible, we destroyed him!"**

Jacket: **"Well, apparently you didn't make it all."** he said as he was being let go. Meanwhile, his mind thought it was being shipped like a car: if those two were named Ulrich and Yumi, and they knew about XANA and Lyoko, then they must have been the friends mentioned in Jeremy Belpois' diary. On the one hand it was a good thing, since they were not agents of the government or of the Green Phoenix, so they were not enemies. On the other hand, Jacket was very annoyed to have been caught.

**"Can you share with me what's going on?"** said a voice unknown to all three. On the threshold of the boiler room was, to Jacket's surprise, Sylviane, who had certainly heard everything. Her eyes were calm, but the heterochromy and the poor lighting of the room made him very penetrating.

_Miracle, the gothic un-lolita can speak. Too bad he's not a desired guest at the moment! And it's the second, after Maya!_

Jacket: **"Jes** Foockin Allmighty Shite, with all these witnesses at this point you can also warn the whole school screaming with a megaphone ..."** muttered between himself and himself, annoyed by the umpteenth inconvenience. Only that everyone had heard it, Sylviane included.

Syl: **"Oh yeah, about the shove before: I'm not saying you had to walk, but you could look around a bit..."** How he could keep a calm and peaceful tone, even in situations like this, is a mystery.

Jacket: **"Okay, let's let a madman take you down and see how attentive you are to the people around you..."**

Yumi: **"Do you happen to know each other?"**

Jacket: **"Just by sight."**

Syl: **"****_Oh, s'il te plait_**** , now that we've pushed each other we're at a more intimate level..."**, she even winked at each other. Jacket increasingly thought that this had come out of an Erogame.

Ulrich: **"Listen, now you follow Yumi and go to the factory, while I go to help my friend."**

Yumi: **"Ulrich, be careful!"**

Ulrich: **"Don't worry, this isn't the first time I've ever fought XANA, is it?"** he smiled and then came out of the room at full speed.

Yumi: **"Guys, follow me!"** He said before entering the passage that led to the sewers.

Syl: **"So... do I have to go down into the sewers with you?"**

Jacket: **"It depends: if you go back into the school there is a slight possibility of a painful death, while if you want to find out what's behind all this you will have to go through a lousy place. It's your choice"** and followed Yumi in the process.

Sylviane didn't want to know either to go back to school or to stay with her hands in her hand, so the remaining option was to follow the duo.

* * *

**CLASS OF COMPUTER SCIENCE**

Jeremy knew that the door would not last long: despite the barricade of furniture, that boy Xanificato would be able to break through everything. And then it would have been trouble six, or rather ... lethal. Ulrich had to hurry up and get there.

Four new guys, the old group repatriated and the return of XANA. This was a special day.


	6. Chapter 6: Here we are Again

_**Happy 2020! So, are you fine? Have you eated and received gifts at will? I hope so.**_

_**So, here's the 6th Chapter! Even if it's more like a "Chapter 5 part 2". But...no buts, here it is!**_

_**As usual, review story, characters and everything else.**_

_**BUONE FESTE NATALIZIE DALL'ITALIA! (Merry Christmas Holidays from Italy!)**_

* * *

**KADICK, COMPUTER ROOM**

For Jeremy, this was the worst day of his life: some kids had discovered the supercomputer, XANA had come back and get hold of a student, who was now trying to break down the door of the IT classroom, poorly barricaded. He had ordered the students to move away and regroup on the opposite wall; he had to protect them in every possible way.

Unfortunately, while Jeremy was completely panicked and paralyzed with terror, the barricade collapsed, and the door was violently unhinged, falling to the ground. On the threshold was the student who was previously in the infirmary; apparently a normal boy, if only it hadn't been for the abnormal strength and the symbol of XANA replacing his pupils.

The Xanified boy, with a speed as superhuman as his strength, grabbed Jeremy by the collar, without him having time to react, and then threw him out of the classroom and into the wall. Jeremy then fainted from the impact. The students, petrified in fear, simply watched the Xanified student advance towards Jeremy, who was about to finish him off with a direct kick to the throat.

Unfortunately for XANA there would be a change of plan: as he was preparing to strike, the boy was thrown to the ground, his head hurting: he stood up and could see who had obstructed him: Ulrich Stern.

Ulrich: **"Hey XANA, glad to see me again after so long?"**, so he took a fighting pose, just like in the old days.

* * *

**ABANDONED FACTORY, LABORATORY**

For Yumi and Odd it was all a giant, nostalgic return to 16 years ago. For Sylviane and Maya it was a big surprise. The latter was as surprised as Edward was at the beginning of everything; on the other hand, Sylviane was quite more calm about the discovery: her passion for amateur reading and writing had accustomed her to the suspension of disbelief, even though she was not fond of science fiction; and then she was partly a quiet person of her own.

Jacket, on the other hand, had rushed straight to the monitor station, placing his backpack next to him to check the situation on Lyoko.

Maya: **"Can you tell me where we are now?"**

Edward: **"Well, in simple terms it's an underground complex, with a supercomputer inside which is Lyoko, a virtual world..."**. Maya still had a puzzled look in her eyes.

Odd: **"Yeah, that's a long story, too..."**

Maya: **"This is so... crazy... And you still haven't answered me: How do you know my mother?"**

Jacket: **"Can we postpone the explanations until later, when we've sorted out this whole mess!?"**

Sylviane: **"...What's the situation on this... Lyoko?"**

Jacket: **"Summing up: there are 10 XANA creatures lurking in front of an active tower , in Ice Sector."**

Maya:** "XANA?"**

Yumi: **"The artificial intelligence that attacks the earth using Lyoko and its towers as connecting points. Also, right now your father is trying to keep a person controlled by XANA at bay."** Noting the worried look on the girl's face, he added, **"Don't worry, my husband went to help him, they'll be fine."**

Jacket: **"So, everybody ready to go?"**

Sylviane: **"You mean, get inside Lyoko and then neutralize the creatures?"**

Jacket & Edward: **"That's right,"** they said in chorus.

Yumi: **"I say no way! The four of you will stay here, Odd and I were expert fighters on Lyoko, we can handle it!"**

Edward: **"I'm sorry, but I disagree: think about it, XANA might send more reinforcements, Jeremy and Ulrich are busy fighting the set student, and according to Jeremy's diary, without Aelita we can't disable the tower! You need as many forces as possible!"**

Yumi: **"Sorry, but I have no intention of risking your life!"**

Jacket, upon hearing this bickering that was starting to go on for a long time, got very nervous and finally came to blink:

Jacket: **"STOP YOUR FUCKING ARGUING, NOW! I don't give a shite about your beliefs, the fact is that now we have to solve this messy situation, so you", he said, pointing to Yumi, "will call Aelita and tell her to get here as quickly as possible, and then you will all go down to the scanner room, enter Lyoko and fight XANA's monsters, while I will help you from here, and eventually we will deactivate the fucking tower! "**

Jacket's intervention had made everyone bleach: Maya was almost frightened, Odd and Edward were speechless, while Yumi was also offended to receive orders from a 14-year-old. Sylviane, despite her wide open eyes, was almost amused by the turn taken by the situation, and even smiled slightly...

Sylviane: _What a temper. I think we've got a boss now._

Sylviane: **"I agree with him: the situation is an emergency, so I vote in his favour."** and raised her gloved hand. Jacket and Edward both raised their hands. Yumi was against it and Odd had apparently abstained. But at the last moment, Maya's hand was also raised.

Maya: **"They're right, we must defend Lyoko and the land. Also, if this has anything to do with my parents, I want to see it for myself."**

Yumi, although irritated, was also a bit happy in some ways: she remembered when she was as stubborn as a mule to discover the supercomputer to get Ulrich to join the old team.

Yumi: **"Apparently we have no other choice... okay, you guys go down to the scanner room downstairs. I'll call Aelita."**

* * *

**BELPOIS HOUSE**

Aelita was busy making lunch when her phone started ringing: it was Yumi.

Aelita: **"Hello Yumi? So, how did it go with your plan?"**

Yumi: **"Listen Aelita, there's no time to talk. You have to come to the factory right now!"**

Aelita: **"What? Yumi, what's going on?"**

Yumi: **"...the worst you could imagine, and you know what I mean... he's back."**

Aelita, hearing the words "he's back", was in a state of total shock: all the memories of Lyoko, of the father who sacrificed himself for her... of XANA, came back to her.

_No, no no no no no no, that's not possible! I thought we defeated him! It was over!_

With great effort and a weak voice, Aelita replied to her friend.

Aelita: _"I'll be right with you."_

When the call ended, she turned off the stove, got dressed in a hurry and got into the the car. She had to get to the factory, and in a hurry.

* * *

**KADICK, SCIENCE BUILDING CORRIDORS**

Ulrich wasn't exactly doing so well.

As people possessed by XANA were not only very strong, but also extremely resistant to pain, Ulrich had to put all his Pencak Silat techniques to good use. A constant exchange of punches, kicks, grabs, and disengages, all while Jeremy was still unconscious. Ulrich had to keep the Xanified student from doing more damage, or worse, getting to the factory.

He had to think of something effective.

* * *

**ABANDONED FACTORY, SCANNER ROOM**

Jacket: **"Very well, are you ready?"**

Edward: **"Affirmative!"**

Jacket: **"Great. Yumi, Odd, Ed, you first. In the meantime, I'll explain everything to the newcomers."**

While the three entered the scanners and Jacket was virtualizing them in the Ice Sector, the latter had begun to explain to Maya and Sylviane how virtualization worked.

Jacket: **"Maya, Syl, listen carefully: as soon as the scanner doors open again, you will have to enter in them; that's where I will virtualize you inside Lyoko, where you will take the form of your own virtual avatar, with various skills and equipment".**

Maya: **"What if we get stuck inside Lyoko, or the monsters kill us? "**

Jacket: **"You won't have to worry about this: on Lyoko you'll have a total of hit points, which if it drops to zero due to monster attacks or anything else it will bring you back to earth, all in one piece. ****Ah a little service note: if you see a sea below you, DON'T FALL FOR ANY REASON! If you fall there, it's a point of no return. All clear so far?"**

Syl:** "Crystal clear."**

Maya: **"All right."**

The scanner doors opened.

Jacket: **"It's time to go!"**

The girls entered the scanner; Maya was extremely nervous, while Syl was, as always, decidedly calm. Too calm.

**_TRANSFER: INITIALIZED_**

_**SCANNER: INITIALIZED**_

_**VIRTUALIZATION**_

* * *

**LYOKO, ICE SECTOR**

Maya and Syl felt all the symptoms of virtualization: a feeling of suction, loss of sensitivity, and the usual bump on the backside.

Realizing that they were all still whole, they stood up, while their sight got used to the virtual world. Their eyes could observe an immense landscape made up of an immense ice land, where the figures of the towers "towered" over the horizon and, unlike the desert sector, no cables passed over the ground. Here, too, it was not necessary to breathe and you could not feel the glacial temperature.

Edward: **"Welcome, girls."**

Remembering not being alone, the two newcomers turned their eyes to Yumi, Odd and Edward. Or rather, their virtual avatars: Yumi was wearing a tight purple fuchsia jumpsuit, and she had two weird marks over her eyebrows. Odd looked like a cat man, with two paws instead of hands; his hair remained the same. Finally Edward was back in the role of the Knight Protector.

Remembering Jacket's explanation, the girls looked at each other, to see what they were wearing:

Instead of her dungaree, Maya was wearing a strange white dress with gold ornaments, very wide sleeves, which was fastened to her waist by a gold ribbon. Underneath her legs were covered by a soft pink skirt, decorated with gold, with a diagonal cut, leaving one leg uncovered. She was barefoot, and had no weapons or objects of any kind with him.

Syl, on the other hand, had more elaborate clothing: a short skirt in black leather studded with bronze, from the waistband of which hung a chain made of brass gears. Her feet were worn with leather boots, also black, with gold inlays. The bust, on the other hand, was covered by a leather bodice, and the right shoulder was protected by a thin studded shoulder, and the right hand was covered by a glove identical to his in the real world, with the difference that it reached up to the elbow. The most peculiar thing were the tattoos that covered the left arm, from hand to shoulder: they represented runes, drawings and phrases with mysterious and occult meanings... almost infernal. Finally, unlike Maya, she had a weapon: on her shoulder hung a reinforced staff, a mixture of wood and burnished steel, and at one end there was a sharp, curved blade.

Maya: **"What kind of clothes are these? They're so... weird."**

Odd: **"Tell me about it. I've been looking like a purple cat for quite a few years."**

Syl: **"New world, new rules."** she said as she took the staff and then swung it around a bit.

Maya: _Wait a minute, I have no weapons, how am I going to defend myself?_ **"Uh, Jacket, can you hear me?"**

Jacket: **"Loud and clear!"** On Lyoko her voice from nowhere took on almost divine connotations.

Maya: **"Unlike all the others, I have no weapons to defend myself with."**

Jacket: **"Uhh... weird. Ok, while I'm trying to examine the cards of your avatars on Lyoko, you shall go east, towards the active tower, you'll recognize it by the red halo; according to the map you'll have to go through a suspension bridge first. All clear?"**

Odd: **"Crystal clear, Einstein II."** So the whole group started running towards the active tower.

_Einstein II? What the fuck kind of nickname is that?_

While Jacket was looking for Maya and Syl's cards, he remembered they needed Aelita to deactivate the tower.

_I hope she gets here soon. I don't know how long Jeremy and Ulrich can keep up the Xanified guy..._

* * *

**KADICK, CORRIDOR**

Ulrich: **"Argh!"**

Ulrich was thrown to the wall after receiving an electric sphere in his stomach. Stunned and teary-eyed, he saw the blurred figure of the Xanified student, who was preparing to finish him off forever.

In the meantime, Jeremy had slowly regained consciousness : an explosion of excruciating pain pierced through his skull as he got back on his feet; fortunately, his glasses were all in one piece. And it was through these that he saw Ulrich about to be killed by the student.

_Ulrich! I must do something! Think, Jeremy, think... _

Jeremy looked around, and then took the closest thing to him at that moment: a fire extinguisher. Following his instinct, and full of adrenaline, Jeremy grabbed the heavy object and, with all the strength he had in his body, ran towards the kid he grabbed, and then hit him with the fire extinguisher from behind. The force of the blow knocked out the student, who at that moment looked like a staggered hologram.

Ulrich: **"Ouch, that hurt... thanks Jeremy!"**

Jeremy: **"No problem! Now we have to run to the factory first, there's no time to lose!"**

Ulrich nodded, and soon the two ran to the factory, while the rest of the students were still petrified by fear.

* * *

**PARIS, STREETS.**

Not even Aelita was having a good time: unfortunately the traffic was quite dense, and the traffic lights didn't help. At that moment she regretted having chosen to live away from the boarding school.

_At this rate, I'll never make it to the factory! I've got to hurry, traffic rules or not!_

Aelita then backed up and then went into the other lane, starting to drive at high speed: in that situation the traffic rules could go and get screwed.

_I hope Jeremy and Maya are OK... I can't lose them!_

* * *

**LYOKO, ICE SECTOR**

The group, in the running, arrived at the beginning of the suspension bridge mentioned by Jacket: a long road of ice, suspended above the digital sea, which joined the mainland and an island to the east, on which stood the tower, surrounded by the red halo of XANA. The bridge was littered with frozen rocks, big enough to use theme as a cover.

At the same time Jacket had finally found Syl and Maya's avatar cards: both had 100 life points, like everyone on Lyoko. As for special abilities, the first one had a skill called "Control", while Maya... just what they needed.

Jacket: **"Guys, little change of plans! Protect Maya and escort her to the tower! She's got just what we need!"**

Yumi: **"You mean he can activate the Code Lyoko and deactivate the tower?"**

Jacket. **"That's right! Come on, hurry up, we don't have much time."**

Yumi: **"Right, move on!"**

Yumi didn't have time to finish the sentence that a stabbing pain struck her arm: XANA's monsters had arrived at the other end of the bridge.

Edward: **"Everybody take cover!"** she shouted as Odd fired laser bolts from her arm, killing only a block monster. Yumi instead pulled out the fans, and after parrying a barrage of hornet-like monsters, she threw them at the creatures, destroying them. In a short time, everyone took shelter behind the rocks to avoid being hit.

Maya had hid behind a rock in the middle of the bridge, right behind Yumi; Syl was in a more precarious situation: she had to take shelter and, at the same time, not to fall off the bridge and end up in the digital sea that was practically behind (and under) her.

Jacket was starting to panic at that moment: he had to find a solution to get them out of the way immediately, while the monsters were advancing along the bridge.

_Wait a minute... "Control" huh?..._

Jacket: **"Syl, do you copy? According to your data on Lyoko, you have a power called "Control": lean out just enough to see XANA's monsters, then try to focus and take possession of a creature!"**

Syl: **"Do you intend to fully control him?... All right, I can try."** Cautiously, the girl sprouted enough to see the row of monsters: in the center there was a giant steel ball, with an opening sign on its entire circumference and a seal that had the symbol of XANA's eye.

_That creature looks pretty devastating to me... All right, let's give it a try!_

Syl then stretched out her tattooed arm towards the spherical monster: the tattoos lit up with a purple color streaked with black, like a nebula. Suddenly Syl didn't see with her eyes anymore, but she saw the monsters in front of the giant sphere, in a sort of red screen that had the symbol of XANA in a corner. At that moment it stopped, along with the rest of the little parade.

_I did it! I took control of the monster! Well, now let's see how much it hurts..._

The sphere-shaped creature opened up, revealing an interior made of red tissue that held it all together, almost like human tissue. In the center, on a kind of loom, there was a slightly larger XANA symbol, which had started to pulsate. Finally, a red fan of energy was released everywhere, hitting both monsters in front and those behind, dividing them in half like butter, and then make them disappearing forever.

Edward: **"A monster of XANA killing his own allies?"**

Jacket: **"If anything, thank Syl, she controls it."**

Odd: **"So you can control monsters? Cool."**

Syl was both embarrassed and flattered at the same time: outside of her family, which she could call perfect, she never had relationships beyond being classmates or acquaintances; and deep down she hadn't suffered, she had her hobbies to keep her busy. But all this big "change of plans" made her happy and not a little bit.

Suddenly something strange happened: Syl lost control on the spherical monster, which disintegrated. At that exact moment, she was struck by excruciating pains all over her body; the shock was so strong that her balance started to fall backwards, towards the digital sea...

Syl: **"AAAAAHHHH!"**

Yumi: **"NO!"**

Jacket: **"SYL! I GOTTA FUCKING DEVIRTUALIZE HER RIGHT NOW!"**

12 meters...

Jacket: **"Move, damn it, move!"** he panicked as he feverishly typed the devirtualisation commands on the keyboard.

15 meters...

Jacket: **"Come on, we're almost there!"**

2 meters... And just before she touched the water, Syl disappeared in a series of data: she had been devirtualized in time.

Jacket then opened a window showing the scanner room from a camera: one of the scanners opened... And Syl came out of it, slowly and a bit wobbly.

Jacket: **" *pant ... *pant ... I did it ..." **Then he raised his middle finger in front of the monitor **"Meet Alt-F4, XANA! Syl, are you in one piece?"**

Syl: **"I think so, a little diziness aside..."**

At that moment the girl _felt more than owed to_ Jacket. Like a rollercoaster of feelings.

* * *

** KADICK, ENTRANCE GATE**

Throughout the street you could hear the squeal of the tires of Aelita's car when she braked in front of the Kadick gate. Fortunately, no policeman had seen the car speeding at that speed. Or so she hoped.

As she got out of the car, Aelita ran down to the manhole in the park. Simply opening that rusty iron disk brought back the whole past to her mind. But it wasn't time to wallow in memories. She had to move on.

* * *

**KADICK, CORRIDOR**

Jeremy and Ulrich's race was over just after it had just begun: as the duo arrived at the door, a ball of electricity conflagrated in their midst, causing them to suffer an electric shock that forced them to the ground. The Xanified student then approached and, stretching out his hands, began to torture Jeremy and Ulrich with continuous shocks of electricity; it would be a slow and painful death.

They couldn't last that long; time was running out.

* * *

**ABANDONED FACTORY, LABORATORY**

Syl: **"Do you have any idea about why this happened?"**

Jacket: **"Hmm?" **

Syl:** "Suddenly I lost control of the monster, he disintegrated, while I received a burst of pain, which made me fall..."**

Jacket: **"... Maybe it means you can only control it for a little while; if that's the case, I'll see if I can improve your skill."**

Syl: **"Thank you, Jacket. For everything."**

Jacket: **"No problems: Administrator's duties!"**

* * *

**LYOKO, ICE SECTOR**

In the meantime Yumi, Odd, Edward and Maya had just crossed the bridge and hid behind a rock, about ten meters from the tower; to protect it there were four tarantulas ready to shoot on sight.

Maya: **"Okay. What's the plan?"**

Yumi: **"You stay here; the three of us will take care of the tarantulas, taking them by surprise."**

Edward:** "All right."** he said, only to remember one thing: when he had been on Xanadu, Jacket had told him that he had a skill called "Heal," which meant "Heal. Then, remembering that Yumi had been hurt, he placed his right hand on his shoulder, trying to channel energy into it: a green halo covered his hand, and Yumi felt invigorated.

Yumi: **"But... what did you do?"**

Jacket: **"Edward has a skill that allows him to give you some of your lost life points; not bad, eh? Okay, you guys ready?"**

Ed, Yumi, Odd: **"Yes!"**

Yumi jumped on the rock and then swirled through the air as she threw her fans towards two tarantulas, killing them with the first blow. Odd, with a lateral somersault, came out of hiding, then aimed and struck a third creature. Finally Edward used the same trick he used on Xanadu: he threw his sword straight at the symbol of XANA on the head of the virtual spider, making it explode into a thousand pieces.

Odd: **"Nice aim Ed!"**

Yumi: **"Okay, Maya, the coast is clear. Get in the tower, hurry!"**

Maya: **"I...What?"**

Jacket: **"Listen Maya, I'll tell you what to do, but you have to get into the tower now! Your father can't hold on much longer!"**

Maya: **"...All right, I'm going!"**, and she ran towards the tower, feeling the black wall to find a sort of door: first the arm, then the rest of the body went through the wall, until it was inside the tower: there was also the symbol of XANA on the platform, while the inner walls were covered with data screens.

Jacket: **"Okay, now walk to the center!"**

As Maya, with a fast pace, walked toward the center of the platform, XANA's symbol on it lit up, emitting a clear sound as she walked forward.

* * *

**KADICK, CORRIDOR**

As the Xanified student grew more and more the intensity of the electric shock, Jeremy and Ulrich, in the immense pain of electricity, were slowly yielding...

* * *

**ABANDONED FACTORY, ELEVATOR**

As the elevator was slowly descending towards the Lab, Aelita was in a mix of worry, fear, panic and nostalgia: the worst nightmare of her life was back, and who knows if Jeremy and Maya were okay...

* * *

**LYOKO, TOWER**

Maya, once she reached the center of the platform, felt as if an invisible force from above wanted to make her go up, and so it was: Maya levitated high, until she reached the foot of another platform, practically identical to the one below; in the center there was a holographic screen, suspended in the air.

Maya: **"Uh, Jacket, I've just climbed into the tower, and now I have a screen in front of me: what should I do now?"**

Jacket: **"Great! Now press your hand on the screen, so you'll enter the Code Lyoko and deactivate the tower!"**

Maya: **"All right!"** As soon as she pressed her hand on the holographic screen, an inscription appeared:

_**MAYA**_

Followed by:

_**CODE LYOKO**_

At that exact moment, all the data that appeared on the inner walls of the tower began to descend. Yumi, Odd and Edward saw how the tower lost the red halo surrounding it, replaced by another halo, this time blue.

Jacket: **"Phew! We did it... we did it... 2-0 for us, XANA."**

Syl: **"And what's for the other score?"**

Jacket: **"Well, I saved you from a permanent swim in the digital sea, didn't I?"**

At that joke, Syl gave a smile: not a funny one, but a far more _sweet_ one...

Jacket: **"Very well, team, mission accomplished! Now I'll take you all back to earth!"**

While he was making the various devirtualisations, he heard the elevator door open: Syl remained motionless, her hands resting on the back of the chair, while Jacket slowly stretched his hand towards the open backpack...

The doors, once opened, revealed a woman in her thirties, with white skin and short, pink hair. This one saw to her amazement the two boys at the monitor station of the Laboratory.

Jacket: **"...Aelita Schaeffer, right?"** he said, while her hand was still reaching towards his backpack.

Aelita: **"...Yes, that's me...and you, if I'm not mistaken, are Richard, the boy in that picture Maya took."**

Syl: _Richard?...so Jacket isn't his real name..._

Jacket:_ I see it all now!: Maya must have seen me on my way back to the dorm, Jeremy found out about the photo, and sent Yumi and company like hounds after me..._

Jacket took his hand off the backpack: she was definitely Waldo Schaeffer's daughter. **"...That's right. Oh, and for the record, your little "photographer" managed to deactivate the tower just in time."**

Aelita: **"Maya? So... can she deactivate the towers too?"**

**"Mom!"**

Aelità turned around, only to be embraced by her daughter; the elevator was, strangely enough, going up, so the boys, one by one, went up the stairs that connected the Laboratory to the Scanner Room. Now only Jeremy and Ulrich were missing.

Aelita: **"Maya! Let me give you a hug!"** he hugged her, careful not to choke his daughter. **"You did great!"** Then he let her go from his grip, and then he turned to everyone else **"You protected my daughter and saved Jeremy and Ulrich, I don't know how to thank you!"**; a tear fell from one eye, while Aelita smiled.

Odd: **"There's no need for that, Princess; after all, saving the day was our routine."**

Yumi: **"Oh, by the way: my congratulations to you all, you were exemplary fighters."**

At that moment the elevator door opened again, showing Jeremy and Ulrich, with their clothes burned and their hair shot in the air, but still alive. As soon as they saw them, Aelita and Yumi ran to hug their husbands.

Yumi: **"Ulrich! Are you all right?"**

Ulrich: **"Yes, although now my hair looks like Odd's."**

Jeremy: **"Luckily Aelita deactivated the tower just in time!"**

Aelita: **"Well... it wasn't really me."**

Jeremy: **"What? Then who did it?".** At that moment Jeremy noticed the group of students, including Maya; in particular he saw Jacket sitting at the command post.

Jeremy: **"As I suspected... Richard."**

Jacket: **"Aye. In addition to being a photographer, your daughter can disable the towers. "Long live genetics", huh?"**

Jeremy was stunned by his student's response. This meant that Maya had found out everything and gone to Lyoko.

Jeremy:** "Maya, is it true what he says?"**

Maya: **"...Yes dad, it's all true."**

Ulrich: **"My dear fugitive, I think it's time to explain a few things."**

Jacket: **"Okay okay, take the popcorn and be careful, because I won't repeat myself."**

Then Richard explained everything that had happened from the beginning: the file hidden in the Deep Web, the prototype supercomputer located in Rome, Xanadu and the reboot of Lyoko's supercomputer, the blackouts... and XANA's return. It took a good half hour to tell the whole story in detail.

Ulrich: **"So he's really back... which means Jeremy's program didn't work."**

Jeremy:** "And I wonder how that's possible: I mean, you all saw it, XANA was destroyed."**

Jacket: **"Well, that means that the most likely scenario is that your program just shattered XANA like a vase: it takes a lot of time, but you can always rebuild everything; besides XANA had escaped into the internet, right? Most likely he copied some of his data around the Internet, so he could recover it in case he wasn't completely destroyed. ****Knowing this, the undersigned, so me, has a new plan in mind: we'll find a way to get XANA back into the supercomputer, block any escape route, and finally delete everything: no more Lyoko and no more Xana; it will all become an empty metal shite heap. In the meantime, we'll have to neutralize XANA's attacks and collect as much useful data as possible, both in Lyoko and in the network. And we'll be able to shut this thing down for good."**

Jeremy:** "I thank you Richard, and thank you too for protecting my daughter, but I can't let my students risk their lives, especially Maya. Leave it to us adults..."**

Aelita: **"Jeremy, don't talk nonsense: you are the only one who teaches the Kadick, while the rest of us live away from boarding school, and XANA will surely attack me and the others too. Maya was able to deactivate the tower, and the other kids were able to stand up to XANA."**

Odd: **"I agree, although this is their first time on Lyoko, they've been tough ones." **

Aelita: **"I'm worried about Maya too and I'm the first one who doesn't want to see her involved, but there's no other choice: we need them. Not to mention that now going back in time won't have any effect, and we can't ignore that."**

At that moment Jeremy was extremely conflicted: he didn't want to risk losing his daughter and his students, but at the same time Aelita was right: the old group couldn't do it alone, they need a hand, and those 4 guys were the best people he could count on.

Jeremy: **"I... you're right, they're the only people we can count on. We have to defeat XANA, and this time for good. "That's our job," remember? Very well: Richard, Edward, Sylviane, Maya, you are now full-fledged Lyoko Warriors."**

Edward: **"We'll do our best!".** Maya and Syl nodded in unison.

Jeremy: **"Richard, I think you know what to do now."**

Jacket: **"Sure, sir!"** and started typing a series of commands on the terminal **"Syl, Ed, Maya: get ready to have a great sense of déjà vu!".**

Syl: **"Hm? What do you mean?"** At that exact moment Jacket pressed the Enter key.

_**RETURN TO THE PAST**_

From the center of the room a column of blinding light was generated, which began to expand everywhere; a giant bubble of light swallowed up the entire city of Paris...

* * *

**TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH, 7:00 A.M.**

At a table in the college cafeteria, crowded with students having breakfast, sat Jacket who, while eating his hot croissant, was waiting for the rest of the group: he needed to know if the Return to the Past had worked, and if everyone remembered what happened yesterday... or better, "today" yesterday.

Just as he swallowed his last bite, a familiar voice, in a very calm tone, turned to him.

**"Is there space for me to sit?"**

Jacket turned his head to find himself in front of Syl: now he could better observe her unique clothing and, above all, her heterochromatic eyes.

_I couldn't remember her being so attractive...wait, what!?_

Jacket: **"Is that a rhetorical question?"**

Syl: **"... Who knows?"** At the same time she winked very eloquently: she remembered everything.

While Syl was sitting next to Jacket, a group of girls at two tables away looked at Syl with an astonished look: since when Sylviane, who didn't even have a friend and was always by herself reading books, sat down with another person, a cute guy nonetheless. Too bad for them that the latter noticed their looks. So Richard, greatly annoyed that a friend of his was fixated on her like that, told them plain and simple that he couldn't stand it. All in a very strong Scottish accent.

Jacket: _**"What ya starin' at ye wee posh cunt?"**_

In a moment the group of girls, intimidated by Richard, turned around and went back to speak for themselves.

**"You must have really scared them. What were they looking at you like that for?"** At that moment Edward and Maya had arrived and sat down with Richard and Syl; the quartet was full.

Syl: **"Well, let's say they are shocked that I sat down with you: before "yesterday" I had never even had a proper friend. What can I say, all turned upside down in an instant."**

Jacket:** "Okay, guys, I'm gonna ask you a rhetorical question: do you remember "we-know-what"?"**

Edward: **"Affirmative."**

Maya: **"Yes. It's all so... incredible. When I woke up, I thought I just had a weird dream. But it's all real."**

Jacket: **"Weird but true, huh? Anyway, seriously, are you sure you want to do this? I mean, we're talking about risking our lives while protecting the world from out-of-control artificial intelligence. I won't blame you in case you want to take a hint..."**

Edward:** "I'll always be there for you, XANA or no XANA: after all, as you already know, my job is to protect you, isn't it?"**

Maya:** "That's right, and if I make a difference in all this, then count me in. My parents are part of all this, so I have a duty to help you."**

Syl: **"Know that I owe you: you saved my life, so I have every intention of returning the favor. You are my first true friends, and I could never abandon you."**

Jacket at that moment smiled, but not with his usual smug smile, or sarcastic one: it was a smile of pure happiness and relief. **"...Thank you guys."**

Throughout the rest of the time the quartet continued to talk about both worldly things and Lyoko, being careful not to be heard from the other students. Eventually it was time to go to class: Maya was on her way to the music class, while Edward was in the gym. Jacket, on the other hand, was on his way to the science building, more specifically the chemistry room; as he walked down the deserted corridor (they were a bit early), he noticed how Syl was following him by his side.

Jacket: **"Do you have chemistry too? I didn't see you around here yesterday."**

Syl: **"Yes, and I'm also in your computer class. See, I was a little down, so I was in the infirmary for a couple of hours. Then I was on my way back to class, when "someone" pushed me as he was running away..."**

Jacket: **"Oh. Well, maybe I owe you an apology..."**

Syl:** "hihihih! I was joking, you don't have to apologize; if it hadn't happened, I could never have known about Lyoko!".** Suddenly she stopped. **"Oh I almost forgot...".** Suddenly she turned to Jacket and, catching him by surprise, kissed him. At that moment Jacket's mind had crashed: although he had previously felt attraction to a fair number of girls, he had never gone this far. He could smell her pleasant perfume , which was at the same time intoxicating enough to stun the senses.

When Syl separated her lips from those of Jacket, she looked him straight in the eye; the girl's gaze was extremely intense.

Syl: **"This is my way of thanking you for everything."** So she put her lips to his ear, whispering in a fucking seductive tone **_"Je me demande si je t'adore ou si je te taquine..., Richard_. I wonder if I adore you or I'm just teasing you...".** He walked back to the courtroom, only to turn to Jacket, who had stood there like a statue.

Syl: **"Well, aren't you coming to class?"**

It was those words that unblocked Richard from his trance, causing him to return to the classroom in complete silence.

At that moment Richard was submerged in a sea of emotions he'd never felt before. If Syl's kiss and "statement" were shocking enough, another thing was shocking enough.

In his entire life, no one except his cousins, his parents, and his teachers had ever called him by his real name.


	7. Chapter 7: The stressful life of heroes

**FRIDAY 4 OCTOBER, 17.15**

**RICHARD'S ROOM**

From the day four guys started defending the earth from an artificial intelligence in a virtual world, just over a month had passed. And during that time XANA was hitting relentlessly, like a jackhammer: possessed people, extreme voltage overloads, virtualized monsters on earth; it was practically hell on earth.

And Richard, most of all, was terribly affected by it: every day he worked harder and harder to find information on how to anchor XANA to the supercomputer; by now he slept 3 hours a night the best, so coffee and energy drinks replaced water. And as if that wasn't enough, he had to keep his school average decent. He was in danger of going crazy.

_Compared to that, university students are having a good time._

And then there was one last question (just to round off the mess): Syl.

Since she came out to him, he had never spoken about their relationship again: he was extremely conflicted, since he didn't know what to say; he was certainly not indifferent to her, but he couldn't say whether he reciprocated or not. And also, he didn't have time to think about these things, he had a lot to do.

Richard then continued to work on the computer; while he was feverishly typing on the keyboard, all his fixed nails and his troubles would not leave his brain...

* * *

**RECREATION ROOM**

Edward had finished studying a while ago, so he had remained in the recreation room distractedly zapping the TV. But his mind was elsewhere: to everything that had happened that month, Lyoko, XANA... And Jacket: he showed himself less and less and each time he seemed more and more a ghost of himself. Edward was constantly worried, but he didn't think it was right to barge into his room; after all, what he was doing was for the good of all.

In the meantime, the news was given the news about a mysterious fugitive in the Czech Republic: it seems that this person is connected to European-American terrorism. The authorities declare themselves on the front line for schooling the potentially dangerous subject.

* * *

**MAYA'S ROOM**

Meanwhile Maya was busy studying: from her father she had inherited not only her intelligence but also her perseverance in studying, even when they had little or nothing to do for the week. Every now and then, however, she would go and think about that turbulent month: she still couldn't believe that her parents had been the protagonists of an adventure that she was now experiencing first-hand.

Sometimes, however, she was worried about Jacket: as Edward had noticed, she seemed on the verge of collapsing due to the amount of work she was subjected to. Sooner or later it would have been better for the rest of the group to go and talk to him.

**"And now back to biology."**

* * *

**COURTYARD, VENDING MACHINE, 17.35**

While the machine was dispensing her hot chocolate (according to Odd, dirty water), Syl stood patiently: soon afterwards she would go to the library to pick up a book she had ordered (the library had recently allowed this). "At the mountains of madness" was the title.

The very moment she took her plastic cup and came out of the small box, outside of which there seemed to be no living soul, she heard footsteps behind her, only to see another person appear before her eyes. Regularly tiled blond hair, brand-name clothes and a bee-queen whore-like air of the entire boarding school. Her name was Jacqueline Auguste .

Jacqueline: **"Looks like someone here wants to show off. What is it about books that you've been fed up with and now you're trying to become the school bitch by attracting everyone's attention? "**

Syl had immediately understood what he was referring to: it was about a month ago that she, as a lone wolf of the boarding school, started having three friends out of the blue. And she was also beginning to enjoy a relative success within the male "public". She emptied her glass in one gulp, threw it away and her tongue struck with a sharp phrase.

Syl: **"... Oh well, at least to be admired I don't have to stoop to certain levels. Isn't that right, Jacqueline?"**

Blondie's face turned into a mask of pure hate: how dare he disrespect her, queen of the school, admired by everyone!?

_Apparently she needs a little lesson about authority..._

When she nodded, the girl behind him grabbed Syl, preventing her from making any attempt to move; Jacqueline instead punched him right in the stomach: the pain and lack of breath made Syl bend forward, at the moment impatient.

1 minute...3...5 minutes of pain after which they let her fall to the ground: in addition to the pain in her whole body, she had a bruise on her forehead. The two girls ran away, leaving Syl with her wounds and the surrounding silence.

The only pseudo-positive note was that the hat could hide the bruise on her head.

* * *

**HALF AN HOUR LATER**

**RICHARD'S ROOM**

By now the day's search was going nowhere: he hadn't found anything really useful yet. At one point, as Jacket finished his third can of energy drink, his phone began to ring.

Syl was calling him...

_...I got better things to do. Besides, I don't have the strength to talk or get up and walk to the door._

_Coward._

He hung up the call and I'm going back to work. He was gonna take care of Syl later.

Maybe.

* * *

**KADICK, CORRIDORS**

Maya, at Edward's request, was walking to Syl's room: two hours had passed and Edward had not seen Syl around (while she was usually walking through the corridors and the courtyard); every time he tried to call her he did not answer. So he asked Maya, since he was in the women's dormitory, to go and have a look. What if XANA secretly attacked?

As she was about to knock on the door, Maya heard a disturbing sound: the sound of a person crying. She wasted no time and opened the door wide, and immediately closed it behind her, finding Syl curled up on the bed, crying her eyes out.

Maya: **"Syl! What happened to you!?"**; at that moment she could see the bruise on her head and the clothes worn out by the blows. She looked like she'd been hit by a car.

Maya: **"My goodness! Who did this to you, Syl, answer me!"**

Syl: **"...i... i-i... nghh... okay..."**

_She managed to get back to her room without arousing suspicion or being seen. Once the door closed behind him, Syl threw herself on the bed, crying her eyes out: never in her life had something so sad, so painful happened to him... From a tremendously grey everyday life she had passed into a sea of overwhelming emotions. All in a single month._

_At that moment he felt he needed someone: and who but Richard, to whom he had declared everything he felt for him last month? Easier said than done, since he hadn't talked about "that moment" anymore, and in general he was far away from the group. But it couldn't hurt to try, could it?_

_So he picked up his cell phone and dialed his number: after 10 seconds, the flow of which had been tremendously heavy, he felt the call close. He had hung up._

_At that moment Syl started crying again, even sadder; if until a minute ago her body and spirit were broken, now her heart was broken too._

Maya:**" ...I can't believe it. I'm sorry Syl, I'm really, really sorry..."** and I hugged her for a couple of minutes; Syl was feeling better, even if only a little bit. At least there was someone who cared about her at that heartbreaking moment. Someone who, unlike a certain person, spoke to her and comforted her...

In the end, when he came out of the girls' dormitory, Edward immediately went to meet Syl, looking worried.

Edward: **"So, how is she?"**

Maya tells him all about the beating and his culprits, and about Richard, who had a lot to give a shit about her, reattaching them to her face. At that moment Edward was in a fit of rage: what kind of person was someone who didn't care about his few friends!?

With a furious step Edward, followed by a worried Maya, arrived in front of Richard's room, suddenly opening the door wide. Richard, jerking, had turned around and was about to pick up an object from the desk, and then retract it when he saw who had crossed the threshold (after closing the door so as not to be heard). On the desk was laying a metal object, never seen before...

Richard: **"What, did knocking on the door become an optional extra or were you trying to give me a heart attack?"**

Edward: **"Congratulations Jacket, you're a really good friend! Not only you don't show your face around, you stay locked in your room like a rat, but if someone needs you, you tell them to go to hell!"**

_What the fuck is he talking abo- Oh, shite. Looks like someone made a house call on the patient..._

Richard: **"Oh well, excuse me for spending 90% of my time busting my ass trying to figure out a way to beat that fucking crazy artificial intelligence! For the record, I don't even sleep four hours a night anymore."**

At that moment Edward saw us black: with one shot he grabbed Richard by the collar of his jacket and yelled at his face; the latter had never seen him so angry. Richard, because of the push, had slammed into the desk, making it even more messy.

Edward: **"This is no excuse to bang a friend who has just been beaten up and who needed comforting! And I remind you that Syl cares about you very much! Right now you're only thinking about yourself!"**

Richard was ready to settle the whole thing with one of his usual dark-humor jokes, but his subconscious took the momentary control: he gave a skull that threw Ed to the ground, while Maya remained scared to watch the scene, without saying or doing anything.

Richard: **"Get a couple of things straight in your head: it's my business if I hang up on someone while I'm working to save this fucking world. What's more important, finding a way to survive or wasting time with the cries of a girl who has suffered four bruises!? There are people who are going through much worse!"**

He no longer knew what to say: in front of him there was no Jacket, his best friend, but an insensitive, sometimes cruel person. Perhaps, after all, his mother was right to abandon him; wasn't he clinically sociopathic after all?

As he got up, Ed said his last words, and then he left with Maya.

Edward: **"All right, fine, I'll leave you alone, but remember one thing: if you push away the people who care about you, you'll end up alone at the worst time of your life."**

As the door closed, Richard was clenching his fists violently, turning his knuckles white. Suddenly you hear a click and the sound of something being unlined. Seeing better, he realized he was holding his new gadget: a switchblade knife, whose blade was now exposed, ready to sink into a person's flesh.

From anger, Jacket's face became perplexed and confused; he also felt nausea coming from his stomach.

_I'm working too hard and all those drinks are killing me, or at least I hope so..._

At that moment he saw something out of the window: a middle-aged man with anonymous features and clothes who, after staring at him with a glassy gaze for a few seconds, walked to the Hermitage; Richard and the others had discovered it thanks to Waldo Schaeffer's diary.

_I don't know why, but I think I'm going to follow him; no one would go to L'Hermitage without a good reason...that only we know. And then I know how to defend myself, in case there's a need._

In 5 minutes he got ready to go to Hermitage, when a notification arrived on his cell phone: XANA had taken control of a tower in the desert sector.

_Bollocks... what if the attack is connected to that man? _

_All the more reason to follow him. Now I'm warning Jeremy and the others..._

He sent the professor and his "friends" a message, and then went out and headed for his destination.

_**Xana attack: Tower 5 in the Desert Sector. Go to the factory. I'll be at the Hermitage, I have something important to do.**_

As Edward was leaving Richard's room, still steaming with rage, his phone vibrated: Richard had reported an active tower in the Desert Sector, asking the rest of the group and Professor Belpois to fix it, since he would be at the Hermitage doing important things.

Maya: **"mhhh... I have a bad feeling... what if it's a trap for Richard?"**

Edward: **"Well, he can take care of himself. After all, he has important things to do, doesn't he?"** Maya was silent, she didn't know what to say...

The duo, in silence, made their way to the manhole in the park.

In the end Syl closed that drawer for good, never to open it again. She had chosen the future. She had chosen life. But she was still heartbroken, with her heart reduced to dust.

And at that very moment, as if to twist her finger in the wound, the phone rang: a tower had been activated, and Richard had asked Jeremy and the others to go to the factory to sort it out; he, on the other hand, was at the Hermitage for things of great importance...

At that moment Syl was even tempted to tell them off, but reason, as usual, had prevailed: now fighting XANA was just a duty. Fight or no fight. Heartbroken or not.

He wiped away his tears and recomposed himself, so that the others wouldn't worry any more, and said to himself at the manhole in the park.

* * *

Jeremy had just finished correcting last week's checks: a general average positive trend. Oh well, if you have "Einstein" as a professor, it gets a lot easier.

At that moment the superscanner on the laptop signaled an active tower in the Desert Sector; it had also received a message from Richard: he had to go to the factory with the rest of the new group, since Richard had "important things to do at the Hermitage".

_...Richard walking around on his own just when XANA launches an attack?... I'm not reassured, I'd better call someone to help him: I wouldn't want him to fall into a trap._

To avoid bothering Aelita, who was dealing with bureaucratic matters at the offices, and Odd being out of town for the day, he dialed Yumi and Ulrich's number, hoping they would answer as soon as possible. Meanwhile, he was already on his way to the park.

* * *

**STERN-ISHYAMA HOUSE**

At that moment Yumi was in the kitchen gathering all the ingredients for dinner; Ulrich had gone to the gym to order some new training dummies, as well as doing a couple of bureaucratic paperwork. Oh well, the hard life of a Pencak Silat school owner.

The phone rang; looking at the screen, Yumi saw that Jeremy was calling her... that it was a new attack?

Yumi: **"Hello, Jeremy. Please don't tell me XANA launched an attack..."**

Jeremy: **"Unfortunately, yes: nothing unusual has happened yet, at least on a large scale; Richard was the first to receive notification of an active tower and asked me and the others to fix it. Now he says he's at the Hermitage to do something important."**

Yumi: **"Let me guess, you think it's a trap aimed at him?"**

Jeremy: **"Precisely. So I need you to go to the Hermitage and take a look."**

Yumi: **"Of course Jeremy, I'll be right there."**

Yumi got ready quickly and got out of the house and into the car. Dinner would be postponed until tomorrow. That is, tonight of the past-future.

* * *

**HERMITAGE ENTRANCE**

It had taken him quite a while; following someone without being discovered was definitely tiring, as well as stressful (as if he didn't already have enough anxiety in his head). Now Richard was in front of the entrance to the old house; despite the time that had passed, it had remained as worn out as it was in 2004.

Richard was tempted to give it all up; it could have been a trap for XANA to set him up for good; he could have gone back to his "friends", maybe even made a couple of excuses on the fly. But it was also true that he was too curious to back out. But he was also cowardly enough to back out of seeing the rest of the group, Syl in particular. Running away from trouble, something he had seen in someone he knew very well...

While the switchblade knife seemed to shake in his pocket, almost as if it wanted to be unlined and used to tear flesh, Richard decided to cross the threshold. A damp, dirty, dimly lit corridor led to the various rooms. It was time to explore a potential house of horrors.

* * *

**MANHOLE IN THE PARK**

Jeremy, Edward and Maya were in front of the old manhole while waiting for Syl's arrival; the professor had noticed Edward's furious and betrayed air and his daughter's melancholy air; what could have happened? Did Richard have something to do with it?

As Jeremy went on in his thoughts, Syl had just arrived: clothes in disarray, signs of tears, and a broken air was what characterized her at that moment.

Jeremy: **"Sylviane! What have you reduced yourself to? Guys, can you tell me what the hell happened?"**

Edward: **"Ask Mr. "I have important things to do. "** His words were bloody poisonous.

As curious as Jeremy was, now was not the time to think about personal matters; one by one, the group descended the manhole, and then closed it with a slight thud. Now the park was quiet and peaceful again.

* * *

**STREETS OF PARIS**

_I need a couple of days off, or I'm gonna pass out driving._

That was what the truck driver thought at the time, after a long journey from Lyon, where he had delivered a large load of goods.

The GPS signaled only 15 minutes from the gas station, where he could rest, when the screen began to crackle and glitch.

_Stupid technological gadget..._

Suddenly black smoke seemed to come out of the sides; at first it looked like something was burning, but those dull wires immediately attacked the driver, entering his ears with extreme violence.

The pupils were replaced by the symbol of an eye, and the navigator marked the position of a Renault a block away.

XANA wanted to drive recklessly; the possessed man accelerated the pedal, running a red light at full speed towards Yumi Ishiyama's car.

* * *

**ABANDONED FACTORY, LABORATORY**

Jeremy: **"Guys, ready to go?"**

Edward: **"Roger!"**

May: **"Okay, Dad."**

Syl:**"... All right."**

_**TRANSFER!**_

_**SCANNER!**_

_**VIRTUALIZATION!**_

* * *

**LYOKO, DESERT SECTOR**

Once virtualized, without suffering a bump on the back, their eyes saw the immense desert expanse, crossed by white cables that connected the towers: funny how, despite the strong light, you could not feel any temperature.

The three boys were back, as usual, in their usual virtual clothes.

Jeremy: **"Very well, the active tower is located south of your location! Hurry, because we don't know about XANA's attack yet, and I'm afraid it's something big."**

Edward:**"Yess, sir!"**

The trio said to the active tower in a hurry; Syl had remained in the queue, sad as she was, she didn't even have the strength to speak or to fight at her best. She only hoped it would end quickly.

* * *

**HERMITAGE, CORRIDOR.**

The tension could well be in place of the enormous amount of dust present, being so strong in the air.

Richard was extremely cautious in every step he took, hand always ready to grasp the knife; if it had not been for his steps, a grave silence would have reigned.

_Jesus Christ, he must be here, there was nowhere else to go but this hovel..._

He heard a creak near the stairs at the end of the corridor, leading to the basement; Richard was in a state of alarm at the time. Slowly he arrived at that point and descended every step, thus finding himself in the basement of the house. Here the humidity and dust were practically omnipresent, along with the complete mess; it looked as if SWAT had raided the house...

The sound of a step made Richard snap, putting him face to face with him: the man he was really looking for. The latter was visibly dilapidated, his clothes washed out and he looked shabby; either he was a madman, or a junkie, or a mix of both. This man, with superhuman speed, beat Richard's reflexes, and managed to grab him by the neck, and plunge him against the wall, squeezing him in a deadly grip.

In a panic and adrenaline rush, Richard quickly pulled out the knife, snapped it and the blade penetrated the entire face of the attacker, who let go of his grip and fell to the ground, his hands on the wounded face. Too bad that instead of blood there was some kind of black liquid coming out, which seemed to have interference, like a monitor.

Richard: **"...I'm sorry XANA, but I wasn't dumb enough to follow you disarm-"**

Suddenly a strange energy threw him into what used to be a heating cell, which Richard only realized after XANA's ghost closed the security door and disappeared into thin air.

_Ow! Holy foockin shite... perfect, it was all a trap, i'm a moron and now I'm stuck in here! I gotta find a way out!_

The room had, in addition to the pipes, a scrambled bench. Next to the door there was a temperature gauge, which had a very small problem: at that moment it was dangerously exceeding the room temperature limit, but in reverse: XANA wanted to freeze Richard to death alive!

_Okay, correction: I have to get out of here FAST! _

First thing: find the point in the room where there is a minimum field and call Jeremy! Despite the lack of windows, at the end of the room there was a little bit of field to call. Richard zipped up his jacket and quickly dialled the IT teacher's number.

* * *

**ABANDONED FACTORY, LABORATORY/LYOKO DESERT SECTOR**

As the group made its way to the tower, Richard's call notification appeared on the monitor display. Jeremy answered immediately; either he was in danger or he had found out what XANA's attack was. Or both.

Jeremy: **"Richard! Are you all right?"**

Richard: **"Taking away the fact that I'm stuck in the Hermitage's heating cell and that I'm in danger of freezing to death with frozen bones, I'm fi-! "**. The signal had been lost and the call had been disconnected.

Jeremy: **"Oh no! Richard, can you hear me!? Richard!"**

Maya:** "Daddy! What happened?"**

Jeremy: **"You must deactivate the tower as soon as possible! As I suspected, XANA set a trap for Richard at the Hermitage, and now he's in danger of freezing to death!"**

Edward:** "...shit! I'm an idiot, why didn't I follow him!?"** The guilt started to fill his head; he was regretting the sentence he said to Richard before leaving him alone after the terrible fight. Other than Protector...

Maya: **"There's no time to lose, let's move!"**

The new state of things made Syl even more conflicted and upset, her mind divided into 3: one side said to stay and help fight the monsters and then deactivate the tower. Another, though tiny, suggested not to think about Richard...

But the third part won in her: she could have ignored and hurt him without any consideration, deserving a thousand punches in the face; but she couldn't help it, she couldn't hate him and, on the contrary, she was still attracted to him: after all she knew, deep down, that Richard wasn't cruel; he cared about them. He cared about her, that day last month when their whole lives changed. It wasn't just a crush, it wasn't just a tease: it was a deeper feeling...

Syl:**"...I'm sorry about what I'm going to do, guys, but I can't stay here..."**

Edward. **"What are you saying-"** he said, turning around just to see Syl smack her chest with the blade of his cane, making her disappear in a whirlwind of pixels.

Maya: **"Syl!"**

A synthesized sound and the crash of a laser beam on the ground alerted the remaining duo: they had arrived in front of the tower, and between them and the tower there were three giant red crabs; the dear old Krab of XANA.

Edward: "Maya, take cover! I'll take care of them!" On high guard, he threw himself at one of the three monsters and with a quick blow, he amputated one of his legs, preventing him from moving; all this was followed by a lunge upwards, which also crossed the symbol of XANA on the back of his body.

There were still two left.

Meanwhile, Syl came out of the scanner, and for a couple of seconds he had to get back on his feet and stop his dizziness, and then climbed the stairs to the lab at the speed of light, and then took the elevator before Jeremy could say 'a'.

Jeremy: **"Sylviane, where are you going!"**

By now the elevator had already left.

* * *

**STREETS OF PARIS**

Yumi: **"Luckily there's little traffic today; I should get there quickly."**

As he was driving at 40 mph, he heard a squeal of tires coming from the road to the right of the intersection where he was now: the cars were dreaming away as a transport truck was speeding towards his car!

With a quick and risky manoeuvre, Yumi managed to brake and make a 180° turn on herself, barely managing to avoid the truck, which collided violently against the wall of a building; people were panicking, the cars were running away at high speed, chaos was spreading; you could see a thin black smoke coming out of the broken window, and then it slipped into a manhole cover. You didn't even have to go 2+2.

In defiance of the traffic laws, Yumi, assured that she was unharmed, set off at very high speed towards the Kadick: time was running out.

* * *

**HERMITAGE**

The situation was definitely drifting: the cell phone field had suddenly blown, the temperature was dizzily dropping, making the jacket less useful, and there was no way to open the fucking security door directly.

_Great-uncle Adolf would be proud of XANA..._

The only thing Richard could do was look for an electric panel or something like that: even though the house was old, that cold room (and especially the security door) certainly worked through an electric control panel; fiddling around with it could have solved the problem. Not that there were any other options...

Five minutes of freezing hell finally allowed Richard to find the object of his research: a small panel embedded in the wall, at first glance difficult to spot because of the paint covering it. Without wasting time, with trembling hands, Richard grabbed his knife and, blade pulled out, began to force the panel: it seemed that the cold had stiffened it much. With a strong tug, the panel snapped open, followed by a worrying jingle: the blade of the knife snapped off...

_Shite. We're good..._

The open door revealed a skein of tangled and discoloured wires, from which hung an electric panel whose levers were worn and unusable. Richard was not a technician, so he would never know which wire to unplug; he was already giving some signs of failure in the cold.

_Well, either I try this, or I'll surely freeze to death..._

Richard grabbed the wires with his bare hands and ripped them all off with a lot of energy: a high-voltage electrical discharge hit his hand, causing unimaginable pain.

**"AARRGHHHH!"**

Richard fell to the ground in spasms of pain, while a burning stench was spreading through the air: his hand had burned, and now he was bleeding profusely.

**"HOLY FUCKING SHITE!"**

He slammed his crippled hand against the freezing wall, heedless of the further pain caused by this: he was now trapped...

* * *

**LYOKO, DESERT SECTOR**

Jeremy: **"Edward! Now you're left alone and with few life points: get Maya into the tower as soon as possible!"**

Edward: **"Copy that!"** In the meantime, his arms were starting to get heavy as boulders, by dint of grinding his sword: XANA meanwhile had sent a large amount of reinforcements. He couldn't hold out much longer. Meanwhile, Maya had remained hidden, unnoticed by the monsters.

Jeremie: **"Damn Yumi, where are you?"** She called her friend on the phone, hoping that nothing had happened to her. Her help was essential.

* * *

**KADICK, PARK**

It seemed that at that moment her lungs had dilated enormously, allowing him to run for a damn long time; Syl was snapping towards the Hermitage, so that she could save Richard; she could not afford to walk around, the more she hesitated, the closer her beloved was to death.

The marathon was stopped by a kind of fleeting vision: a shadow seemed to move through the trees, at a lightning speed, inhuman.

Syl: **"Who are you!? Show yourself!"** she said as, with circumspection, she picked up a long, thin, but strong, branch from the ground; a good thing about Lyoko was that she had learned to handle any pole like a fighting stick.

In front of her appeared her challenger: a man in his fifties, far too much like many ordinary people; remove the irises that had overprinted the symbol of XANA. Usually the awareness of whether an opponent with superhuman strength would make most people run away or surrender; Syl was not among them.

**"Now I don't care what he did to me anymore: if I have to fight you to save Richard and break my bones in the process..."**

She took the attack position.

**"SO BE IT!"**

With a long leap forward, he charged up.

* * *

**KADICK, GATE**

Aelita was certainly better in the parking lot: Yumi, in the abrupt braking of supplies to the boarding school, had ripped a mirror off another car, as well as having scratched the whole right door. Oh well, the owner won't remember his poor Chevrolet anyway.

Despite the thwarted accident and the tension, Yumi still had enough breath to get out of the car and take a long shot at the Hermitage. In the meantime, the phone was ringing again: she replied, being careful not to drop it as she drove through the forest.

Yumi: **"Hello?"**

Jeremie: **"Yumi, you have very little time to reach Richard! I was right, XANA has locked him in the Hermitage heating cell, and he's in danger of freezing to death!"**

Oh, Yumi surely knew that place: some time ago she was locked up there with Ulrich, always thanks to XANA.

Yumi: **"Alright Jeremy, I'm almost there!"**

She gave a last knock of the kidneys, coming to see the abandoned house in the distance; perhaps there was still hope.

* * *

**LYOKO, DESERT SECTOR**

Edward: **"Maya! Get in the tower now! I can't hold on much longer!"**

He didn't say it twice, so he sprang towards the black base of the active tower, also taking a laser shot of XANA's monsters right on his back. Luckily, she was able to get inside and reach the center of the platform, which was about to go up.

While Edward, destroyed as he was, was trying to avoid as many hits as he could and annihilate as many monsters as he could. His feat was interrupted by a last flurry of blows that caught him off guard, causing him to be instantly devirtualized. XANA's monsters began bombarding the tower with laser strikes.

* * *

**HERMITAGE**

By now he could no longer do anything effective, he was injured, he was beginning to lose his strength, and mentally he had gone completely: his mind was confused, hallucinated, a mixture of abstinence and lucid thoughts. As he tried, with what little energy remained, to forcefully open the security door, knowing that he would not make it, he seemed to see something moving on the other side, through the foggy window. Someone had come to help him? Was it just an illusion? Who knew? His vision was getting blurry.

The guilt was beginning to creep into Richard's head, like needles stuck in his ears: Edward, with that phrase as heavy as a boulder, was right; he could have asked them for help instead of going crazy in front of a fucking monitor; he could have given himself a day off to meet them.

He could have answered that fucking call and talked to the person who needed him most of all; ironic as that day, during the first battle in that world made of polygons and numbers, he had gone out of his way to prevent Syl from dying in a virtual sea. And now, instead, he had abandoned her, thinking only not to face the problems of those who were next to him, and to put a strain on himself.

_"By pushing away the people who care about you, you end up alone at the worst time of your life."_

_They are almost right... abandoning friends or family must be family; like mother like son, in this case._

Richard raised his head as he prepared to exhale one last cry of despair.

* * *

**KADICK, PARK**

Ironically, Syl was also succumbing: although she had managed to assess a couple of shots to XANA's spectre (including one in the head, which had just dropped him), the being was definitely stronger than she was, especially against conventional weapons. Now the one on the ground was Syl, agonizing while XANA, with that branch that had been useless against him, was hitting her repeatedly on the back: at this rate she could have broken her spine.

No...I couldn't reach him and save him...why!? Why did I fall in love with him!? Why didn't I follow him before!? WHY !?

The only thing she could do was scream: of pain, of sadness. Of everything.

* * *

At that exact moment, in the cold immensity of the universe, death was claiming two souls, and these, as if they were in symbiosis, were emitting a last, roaring, cry. The exclamation point of all that had happened.

* * *

**CODE LYOKO**

* * *

The armoured door snapped open, allowing Richard to get out, slumped to the ground, on the floor of a now much warmer place. His nose, due to the enormous change in temperature, began to bleed.

_I'm still alive...I'M FUCKING STILL ALIVE!_

At one point he felt himself standing up, supported by a person whose female voice thundered in his ears.

Yumi: **"Come on, try to stand up. That was close, are you okay!? What happened to your hand?"**

_The Japanese woman... I wasn't dreaming at the time, someone had come to try to free me..._

Richard didn't have the strength to answer: he only thought about what he would do when we got back. Something very important.

* * *

The barrage of hit was over: the clone had vanished, disappearing into a cloud of smoke; this meant that the tower had been deactivated, and so Richard (besides her) was definitely alive. She was certain of it.

She couldn't get back on her feet and walk, so she crawled slowly and painfully towards the Hermitage, clinging firmly to the ground. She wanted to see Richard again, to be near him. Because deep down she couldn't stop loving him: it's not a feeling that can be taken away at will; there was something about him, something that drove her not to give up on him. She was saved by him that day, wasn't she?

Jeremie: **"Hello, Yumi!? What, he's still alive? Phiuu, thank goodness..."**

Edward was beside him at the time, since he had stayed in the lab after being devirtualized. He was heartened to know that Richard was not dead, and still sorry for the sentence he had said to him a few hours ago.

Jeremie: **"Maya, Edward, good work, everyone. Now we can go back and enjoy this Friday."**

_**RETURN TO THE PAST**_

* * *

**FRIDAY 4 OCTOBER, 17.15**

It's a good thing to travel back in time, isn't it? You can make up for all your past mistakes and change the future; Richard now knew this as he turned off the PC and left his room; he had finished his work, so as not to overdo it again.

Direction: vending machines. He had something important to do.

* * *

**17.35 HOURS**

This time no coffee, she went straight to the library: Syl knew that if she stayed there she would get more bruises; painful memories, if possible, she wanted to avoid them, after all "history repeats itself".

Jacqueline: **"Apparently someone here wants to show off. What is it about books that have bored you and now you're trying to become the school bitch by attracting everyone's attention? "**

When he heard that voice his eyes were darkened: why did it have to happen again?

Syl: **"Look, I don't want to talk about it. Leave me alone."**

And again, before she could lift her heels, she was caught on her back, ready to be used as a punching bag again. But history is not always the same: the winners rewrite it. And so it was in this case.

**"Take one! Anti-bullying documentary part 1, action!"**

Jacqueline, even more angry at having been interrupted, turned towards the source of the voice: she saw Richard coming out of the box of the machine, pointing his mobile phone at him, in order to film them in their criminal act.

Richard: **"Now, I'm going to delete this video, but there must be a couple of things that are clear: **

**_"Mo ve ne andate, e non provate a toccare Syl, che sennò so' cazzi vostri._**** In short, fuck off and do not ever touch Syl again."** Learning the Roman dialect, in addition to the Scottish dialect, has its advantages.

Jacqueline and her "henchman" left, angry that they could not give a lesson in superiority. In the meantime, Richard was putting his cell phone back in place, since he wasn't actually filming anything; his eyes crossed with those of Syl, who was looking at him, smiling.

_I wasn't wrong about him..._

Both of them approached each other, and the first to utter the word was Richard...

Richard: **"As uncommon as it is for me, I have to tell you: ...I'm sorry, I could have answered-"**; his apology was interrupted by Syl's embrace.

Syl: **"Don't apologize, I'm sure you didn't do it on purpose. I know how much you're doing for us, but please don't work yourself to death, okay? So apology accepted."** She released him from his grip, then headed back to the library.

Richard instead headed towards the park; he needed to walk.

_I'm still not sure what to think of Syl... but one thing's for sure: I'll avoid doing the same shit again, especially with her._

One learns from history from one's mistakes, right?


	8. Chapter 7-5: Hacker Evolution

**_Hi! I hope you are doing well with the virus and everything; you know, being in the italian quarantine quite sucks, but i'm also doing well!_**

**_So, here's a "7.5" chapter, because it's shorter than usual, but introduces a future character which we all know quite well. I've also decided to add a new whole set of characters, places and relationship starting by chapter 9-10._**

**_I'd also like you to give me an opinion about the story, the characters, the relationship and everything else! I'll be very happy to respond you and talks about it, so i can improve myself!_**

**_Now, good luck for your lives, treat yourself well, and enjoy!_**

* * *

**SATURDAY 31 OCTOBER, 6.15 AM**

The Halloween day began, where the macabre and horrifying things (and even diabetes) abounded everywhere. For two days the school had been decorated with pumpkins and themed festoons, as the usual fancy dress party would be held in the school gymnasium. Originality take me away.

At that moment, in Richard's room, it was not the alarm clock that rang, but the PC: as Richard was half asleep, hearing that illuminating sound, he immediately got out of bed and checked the screen:

_**SEARCH COMPLETE:**_

_**1 MATCHING FILE FOUND.**_

_**SERVER: NCP, New York, IP ADDRESS: [PORT 210].**_

_"Yes...YES! YES! I FOUND IT! I FUCKING DID IT! I DID IT. I DID IT!"_

At that moment it was as if a mix of cocaine and adrenaline was circulating wildly in his blood: those sleepless nights of work (costing almost the sacrifice of his friends, if you remember ...) had paid off! He had that file! The one that would turn everything around! Now the chance to re-imprison XANA in the supercomputer was much closer!

He had to give the news of the day: he got dressed in a hurry, and then swooped out of his room, headed for the cafeteria, where the rest of the gang had just arrived and taken their seats: at that moment most of the students were taken by surprise when they saw Richard piuombaread at high speed in the cafeteria, took the breakfast tray and sat down at his usual table.

Edward: **"Hey, Richard, is everything okay? Is this by any chance a XANA attack?"**

Syl: **"Let him breathe, Edward."**

Richard: **"Guys... I managed to find the file that will allow us to lock XANA inside the supercomputer! We need to hack the server, but it shouldn't be a huge problem."**

Maya: **"What!? Are you serious?"**

Richard: **"That's right, princess of the tower! And make sure you warn your dad!"**

Maya: **"Copy that, big boss!"**

Syl: **"That's great, Richard!"**

Edward: **"Yeah. So, now that you can sleep better, are you thinking of joining the Halloween party?"**

Richard: **"...I don't know, I hadn't thought about it-"** he said as he saw Syl and her serene gaze: he could see a mile away that she was happy that Richard could now be calmer; after all, his wanting to put the "salvation" of the world over his shoulders was costing him dearly that October 4.

_"...what had I promised myself? Not to fuck up and leave her alone anymore, not again, not with her. I still don't know how I could define my relationship with Syl, but I can't do like I did last time. And deep down, I think one day without XANA and the stress he brings could be good for me, or at this rate, i'm gonna go crazy..."_

Richard: **"...Aye, why not? After all, XANA has attacked us quite a few times in the last two months, and I don't think he has the irony to unleash his "nightmares creatures" on the day dedicated to horror. So yeah, I'll be there tonight!"**

Edward: **"Great! Meeting at 6:00 p.m. under the backyard porch?"**

Richard: **"All right."**

The quartet then split up, each to go to Saturday morning classes.

* * *

**SWITZERLAND**

It had not been easy to escape for 875 km, hunted both from DGSE and Green Phoenix agents, but, miraculously, she had made it.

Now she was in a much more comfortable accommodation than last time: a very discreet 3-4 star hotel, where no one could have gone to find her without giving her enough time to escape. At that precise moment the woman had got out of the shower and had almost finished dyeing her hair brown; without using any make-up or disguise she would have been recognized from at least a kilometer away. Also because her body, especially her face, had remained the same as it was 30-40 years ago.

Meanwhile, on the bed, the laptop was on, intent on performing an operation; it seemed about to go into standby, when at one point it made a sound and the screen began to return the information found:

_**SERVER: NCP, New York, IP ADDRESS: [PORT 210]**_

**"Looks like it's time to get back to work."**

Finished applying the dye and getting dressed, the woman came out of the bathroom and went to her laptop: she had found just the server she was looking for; inside, almost certainly, there were all the information she needed.

**"Perfect. Before I break into the system, I'm gonna monitor the server for a while."**

* * *

**KADICK, MEN'S DORMITORY HALLWAY, 18.10**

Edward: **"Come on, Richard, will you hurry up, we're already late."**

For ten minutes, waiting outside the door, there was Edward who, as the rule of the evening, here at the Kadick, was dressed in a theme:In particular, he had managed to get from the historical fencing group of the college an old and broken replica of a long sword, retouched with fake rust for the occasion; the clothing consisted instead of a fake chain mail (the cheap ones, in short), torn; the face was partially covered by a band that surrounded the forehead, colored with fake blood, at the sight quite "cartoonish". Let's face it, there were worse costumes.

And then Richard opened the door...or rather, the one who looked like Richard, since his costume was extremely convincing: the clothes were normal, i.e. jeans, a blue t-shirt with a Varsity Letterman jacket (American school model, to be precise) and a pair of Nike Airmax. However, everything looked terrifying, thanks to the wear and tear on the clothes, the boxing bandages worn on the hands, and the fake blood that was much more realistic; the face was something even more macabre: disheveled, dirty and with fake cuts (including a medical gauze on the cheek), and lots, lots of fake blood. Finally, to accompany it all, there was a baseball bat held in his right hand, and a rubber mask in the shape of a chicken.

Edward: **"...You're gonna scare everybody..."**

Richard: **"Right, that's the idea, isn't it? Come on, let's go."**

It didn't take long to reach the girls, as they were just lurking behind the men's dorm door. As soon as the Killer Rooster and the Undead Knight came out, they got a big jumpscare from the two girls of the quartet; or rather, Edward had been taken by surprise, while Richard had just turned around (actually, the scare kept him inside...). Turning around, both of them could see Maya and Syl in themed dresses; about: Maya was wearing a dark pink, short skirt dress, covered at the torso with a leather bodice... Ankle boots, fake pointy canines were sticking out of her mouth, and hornets were sticking out of her head, attached to a hairband. A little devil in pink...

Richard: _Internet, prepare to receive waves of work from artists whose minds range from the brilliant to the incurable perverse._

On the other side there was Syl, who was relatively more sober: from the t-shirt she switched to a long-sleeved shirt, the latter "fishnets"; the skirt, short as usual, was a bit more elegant, with a big (albeit fake) lilac flower sewn on top. Finally, around the neck it had a black lace band. For the rest he wore the same boots, stockings, fingerless gloves and cap; the usual Syl.

Richard: _...shite, that's a foocken bonnie lassie... *_...a thought/compliment in Scottish dialect.

Syl: **"...what is it, Richard you've become a bleeding statue?"** he said in a nice tone.

Richard: **"wha-...nae, nothing."**

Maya: **"Well, let's go then, shall we?"**

The quartet of secret saviors of the world then headed towards the gym, where the heart of the party was held; going out into the courtyard you could admire the people and their costumes, some well done, others decidedly mediocre. Or the fucking classics.

And look who's at a distance of about ten meters if not our NOT-dear and NOT-desired Jacqueline August and her lackeys/women in training. They were dressed like non-Goth trying to be Goth. Simply put, they were dressed like hookers in black. And shitty, too, at the thought of the group. Jacqueline & Co. took one look at Syl in the distance, ready to pull out a string of terms from slightly disparaging to extremely offensive; a pity for them that they were immediately silenced and frightened by Richard, who, using her costume, gave them a semi-psychopathic smile, as false as it was eloquent in meaning.

Finally they crossed the sports field and were in front of the gym, from which one could hear Velcro Fly by ZZ Top, a ball volume. Finally decent music...

Richard: **"The Drums of the Gods. Have we just come to Lud?"**

Edward and Maya, in chorus: **"...Huh?"**

Syl: **"Mhh... "****_Wasteland_****" by King, right? "**

Richard: **"Aye, lassie, exactly."**

Too bad, as usual, the phone gets the notification that ruins the whole evening...

Richard: **"Jesus Shi***g Christ, is it ever poss-wait...it's not XANA...someone's hacking the fucking server!"**

Maya: **"What's going on?"**

Edward: **"An attack by XANA?"**

Richard: **"I'd quite prefer it was like that: I was able to put a bot to check the status of the server, and now someone is hacking it. And it's not XANA...**

**What are you guys standing here, come on!"**

Heading to the factory now, the group would have no Halloween night...

* * *

**SWITZERLAND**

**"Very well, hacking this server is easier than I thought. Now all I have to do is hack in and get that file..."**

All those years of imprisonment, caused by the Carthage project, were about to be repaid...

She hadn't noticed that the third wheel had just arrived...

* * *

**KADICK, GYM**

By now PCs were also helping some of the DJs' work, especially at parties. And while Jeremy was there to help with the electronic equipment, Odd had taken the day off to help with the music. He missed the Kadick; and how could he not remember the giant teddy bear attack at the annual school dance?

And Einstein's phone rang, too, with a call from Maya.

Jeremy: **"Hello Maya, is everything okay? I haven't seen you around."**

Maya: **"Dad, you have to run to the factory right away. Remember Richard's discovery, the one I told you about this morning?"**

Jeremy: **"Yes, of course; this isn't by any chance a XANA attack?"**

Maya: **"Unexpectedly no, actually someone else is trying to break into the server. And they probably want the same file."**

Jeremy: **"All right, I'll be right with you. Odd, to the factory: it's not about XANA, but it's just as important."**

Odd: **"Copy that, Einstein."**

Even the adults wouldn't have enjoyed the evening.

* * *

**FACTORY, LABORATORY**

Richard **"That bastard is still cracking a port to get into the server! I'm gonna try to intercept him now."**

Edward: **"Don't you risk getting caught?"**

Maya: **"I doubt, as long as he's not trying to hack the NCP server, he shouldn't be directly tracked down by anyone who can arrest us for cyber crime. At least, not right away."**

At that moment Richard's priority was to block that hacker: the first was to find out more information about him; the IP address alone was not enough.

He was about to start a duel with keyboard and command lines.

* * *

**SWITZERLAND**

On a percentage scale, the cracking of the NPC server port was at 93%. During the operation, however, a brute force attempt by an unknown IP was reported .

**"And who is this!? Let's get him out."**

It begins the first exchange of command lines to prevent the second hacker from hacking into his laptop. The situation was stalling more and more, with every attack move he made, she was blocking him, and the cycle was repeating endlessly: they both weren't in front of an amateur. In the meantime the cracking of the port had reached 100%; the woman managed with one last command to break away from her opponent, and then immediately entered the NCP server.

* * *

**FACTORY, LABORATORY**

Jeremy: **"How's it going?"** He and Odd had been there five minutes, watching the hacking duel between Richard and the unknown hacker.

Richard: **"Fuck, nae! He hacked into the server and cut me out! I can't waste time cracking a port, it would take too long. I have to think..."**

Maya: **"One moment Richard: I remind you that this is a quantum computer; tell me, how does XANA connect to our world?"**

Richard: **"With the towers, nae shite; and what i'm gonna have to-" At that moment he had a flash of lucidity in that shitty situation. "Is it possible for me to control the Towers?"**

Jeremy: **"Of course I do! I've used this trick several times against XANA."**

Richard: **"Great! If I can't crack a port normally, then we'll dig the server access ourselves. "**

At that moment he feverishly typed the commands needed to activate a tower on Lyoko, using as a base the commands used by XANA (which remained, somewhat, in a log file.)...although he would not be limited to that...

* * *

**NCP OFFICES, NEW YORK**

At that moment everyone was there: technicians, secretaries and even the company director.

**"Sir, someone broke into our server with an attack on port 210!"**

**"Stay calm. Even if he managed to get in, he'd have to decrypt the information he's looking for, and with our security measures it would take him a long time, unless he has a military computer, which he certainly doesn't. For now, just monitor him."**

There was silence in that office: all the computer technicians' eyes were fixed on the monitors, ready to track the intruder at the most suitable time. They couldn't be fooled by one hacker, not the NCP.

"…"

**"Sir, I think the server's down! 42... no 287... Good heavens!"**

**"What's going on!?"**

**"All our ports are being attacked by... more than 4582 dynamic IPs are reported attacking at the same time, all over the world! "**

**"WHAT!?"**

**SWITZERLAND**

**"What the-!? 5000 different IP's are attacking the server! No wait ... and they're changing all the time!"**

Could that be the same person as before?

_**Download File: "85%".**_

With a quick keyboard stroke she started an automatic command: she had learned how to continue downloading from a server after leaving it safely. She had to download and protect the file at all costs!

* * *

**FACTORY, LABORATORY**

Richard: **"FOUR ACTIVE TOWERS AND MILLIONS OF ATTACKS, UBER-MORONS!"**

Jeremy: **"That's great, Richard! You're smashing an entire server!"**

Richard: **"And that's not all! The attack automatically decrypts all files in the database! In this way I have removed all layers of security! We're in!**

**What!? The other hacker had managed to take the file and take it with him while he was still downloading it!?"**

Jeremy: **"Are you serious?! How are we going to do it, then!?"**

Maya: **"Richard, can you track the hacker on the Internet?"**

Richard: **"Yes, I should be able to do that, but let me leave a "Halloween candy" at NPC first..."**

* * *

**NCP OFFICES, NEW YORK**

**"We're not stopping all the attacks, there are too many of them! And they've already decrypted and taken a file from our secure database!"**

**"Is this a fucking joke!?"** The warden had never been so angry and agitated in his entire career.

At that moment he started an electric shock from all the central computers: the smell of circuits and burnt plastic permeated the office air, all followed by a total blackout. The server, and the company's power grid, were gone...

**"...Did anyone manage to see where in the world the attacks were concentrated!?".** He was doing his best not to smash anything in front of him (blindly of course..).

**"If I'm not mistaken, sir, I've noticed a peak of connections in Western Europe, particularly from France and adjacent countries."**

**"Very well... we must look for those bastards! I'll ask my "contacts" to perform the operation..."**

The NCP had contacts in the DGSE and Green Phoenix; everything was connected by many, tiny wires and vectors that made up a large and complex image...

* * *

**SWITZERLAND**

_**Download:"97%...98...99%". **_

**"Even if only by a hair's breadth, I did it! Now the file is in my hands!"** As good as her opponent might have been, she had worked on Project Carthage; she was on another level.

Or maybe not?

_**..98%...94%..**_

**"What the... NO!"**

That hacker not only managed to find her, he was literally stealing her file!

At the same time thousands of screenshots and glitches were appearing on the screen: her computer was being fucked up; she was feverishly typing every command, every single way to keep the file and escape from this virtual vice...

_**87%...72%...45%..**_

**"No, no, NO!"** She couldn't stop that wave of attacks, all headed for his PC; it was like a digital tsunami...

_**0%**_

And then, the computer suddenly shut down.

**"nghh... DAMMIT!"**

* * *

**FACTORY, LABORATORY**

The door of the armored elevator opened in its usual noisy metallic clank; from five, nine had come back, as Aelita, Ulrich and Yumi arrived; Jeremy had thought well to call them and have them come to the factory: a sort of general meeting.

Aelita:** "Jeremy, Maya, guys! Is everybody all right?"**

Maya: **"We're all in one piece!"**

Ulrich: **"You told us to come as soon as possible, what's going on?"**

Jeremy: **"You'll say it, Richard."** There was pride in his voice.

Richard: **"Oh, nothing happened. I just found and recovered the file that will allow us, at least in a major way, to re-trace XANA into the supercomputer!"**

Yumi:** "Really!?"**

Aelita: **"Are you saying we have a chance to erase XANA and Lyoko for good?"**

Jeremy: **"Yeah but there's a" but." "**

Richard: **"The file is decoded in a different and more complex version of Hoppix, the language used to write Lyoko, XANA and the supercomputer OS. So it's going to take quite a while before we can use it 100%, and we're also not totally sure about it."**

Odd: **"Estimated time?"**

Maya: **"Definitely more than two months, with the knowledge and resources we have."**

Jeremy: **"Yeah, it's a real nuisance!"**

Ulrich: **"Oh well, look on the bright side, at least we're a lot closer to ending this. After quite a lot of years."**

Aelita: **"That's right, we'll try our best!"**

Syl: **"Richard, did you get any information on that hacker?"**

Yumi: **"What hacker?"**

Richard:** "The one I competed with to get the file on the NCP server.** *write various commands and check various system logs.

**...There you go, I've got some data! First of all, his location: although not precise, seems to be in Switzerland, closer to the French border. Also, there have been network connections from the Czech Republic. However, the data are incomplete and contradictory: the current age is declared to be about 38 years old, but the date of birth is in 1958. The calculations do not add up. "**

Maya: **"It could have just corrupted the data, couldn't it?"**

Richard**: "Who knows...anyway, I can't figure out who else might want that file: it wasn't XANA, otherwise he would have attacked us directly and the towers would have been activated under his control; it could be the government, but I don't think it should go so far as to illegally enter an American server, and then steal a file that doesn't deal with military material or anything like that. So let's take out Green Phoenix for the time being, because they were in cahoots with the government in Project Carthage."**

Edward**: "Wait a minute: you said the hacker was also connected from the Czech Republic, right? Well, at the beginning of the month, on the news, there was news of a dangerous individual who had escaped from the Czech Republic! It could be him, right?"**

Richard**: Mh...possible...wait, more information has appeared! This person, since 1994, is affiliated with a certain...no, that's not possible!"**

Jeremy**: "What, Richard!?"**

Richard**: "...Affiliated with "Project: New Carthage". This could mean one thing: probably he knew the file was in a particular version of Hoppix; maybe our hacker was part of Project Carthage, aka Lyoko."**

As they say in theatrical jargon, that silence was a real "Russian pause". Not for the mind of Aelita, who was immersed in chaos, thanks to one number:1994. Someone had disappeared that year. And not just anyone...

Jeremy**: "Aelita, are you okay? You've turned pale."**

Aelita**:"...Yeah, don't worry Jeremy, it's just a lot of information to sort through, that's all."**

Yumi**: "So, what are the future plans?"**

Richard**: "Decode the file and find more information about this hacker. He gave me a hard time, I admit it."**

Edwin**: "Anyway, now that we're done here, what do you say we go back upstairs? It's still Halloween, and today's curfew is moved to midnight!"**

Syl**: "That's right. At least then we can all get some rest, especially you, Richard."**

Richard**: "Mh. All right, everyone to the surface!"**

They left the supercomputer on standby, going to celebrate what was left of the night of horrors.

* * *

**IN THE MEANDERS OF THE INTERNET**

Attacking as usual wasn't working enough.

So XANA was thinking of a more devious plan: it's easy to destroy humans' psyches by evoking the darkest recesses in their minds, which AI could very well turn into simulations.

The whole thing would take place in November.

** 19.**


	9. Chapter 8: Dream Violence, Part 1

**So, hi again! I know, it has been so much. But here in Italy, school during lockdown was hell on earth, from organization to homeworks to...everything. But here i am, with a new chapter, divided in two parts! **

**Now, probably most of you, while reading this, will think "Is this Code Lyoko? What the hell is this dream-simulation-sequence like stuff!?". Well, the thing is that: when i was writing and creating the whole plot and characters of this fanfic, i didn't want just to do a "more of the same series". I wanted to write all this also as a more unique story. Yes there's Lyoko, XANA, the old group etc. but at the same time i want to introduce more: more psychological matter, a whole new virtual world, more characters, adding info and fan made lore...**

**But enough with my bullshit, here's chapter Eight! Read, Review and Rate!**

* * *

**19 DECEMBER, 00.35**

**RICHARD'S ROOM**

He was neither asleep nor awake; at that moment Richard was in a kind of limbo between tiredness and being well awake, while he was thinking, as always, of everything that happened in these months, almost as if he wanted to fix them in his memory, like notes.

December had already arrived, Christmas ("because the Feast of the (False) Happiness Tax was not very effective") was definitely close, but the atmosphere and the situation were certainly not festive: at the moment, the file recovered from the NCP server, after a very difficult duel between him and a mysterious professional hacker, was only 50% decoded; that version of Hoppix, in which the file was written, was so damn complex to interpret.

And he wasn't even doing everything: Jeremy and Aelita, being computer geniuses, immediately started to give him a hand, avoiding him a handful of sleepless nights and the consequent stress. But they hadn't got that far yet.

But there was something too strange about this whole situation: in the months following the digital "duel," XANA hadn't attacked. Literally nothing, whereas before that it was a real "jackhammer of calamity".

_"No use thinking about it all the time; no matter how slow, we're making it. And now to sleep, before I feel like working at night."_

The list of thoughts, however, was not finished, and this continued to deprive the boy of his sleep. Especially because it was something more personal: Sylviane Cellier, better known as Syl.

Both of them were in what Richard called "the strangest human relationship I've ever had in fifteen years": it was as if there was some kind of spring between them, since they always seemed to be getting closer, but without ever getting to a point. Now, it wouldn't be possible to draw up every single moment (whether it was during a XANA attack or not) when there was progress in their relationship: either because they were days and days of events, or because they were subtle issues, but at the same time with a silent importance of their own.

But if that sort of statement, or teasing, made by Syl some time ago had been the spark, October 4th had been the fire that had begun to blaze: it was from that same day that both of them, more or less unconsciously, found themselves watching each other's back, both on Lyoko and in "normal" life, and they could say that they had developed a strong bond that had never been made explicit in words.

Richard never told anyone, but on that autumnal day he had felt a double guilt: not only because he felt himself quite as an asshole in letting a friend cry, while she was beaten the shit out of her, and reattaching the call to her face when she asked for him; but above all because he had only later discovered that Syl, despite everything, had tried to run to his rescue (while Richard was freezing in the freezer, with a burnt hand), having her back almost broken by a specter of XANA.

Richard had never felt so much considered, what's more, by someone who went so far as to sacrifice himself to save his ass from an almost certain death. He couldn't explain why Syl had gone so far, worrying so much about him, the one that put on her and all of them the burden of having to protect the world, because of him and his damn curiosity?

And the more time passed, the more Richard saw in Syl something that raised her a notch above, for example, his friendship with Edward; with Maya then he had a sort of "big brother" relationship, even if everyone in the group treated her a bit like a "Princess 2.0", just to quote Odd.

But he hadn't yet reached a point that would allow him to answer the question that had been going on for months: how could he define his relationship with Syl, and above all, what did he feel?

Faced with these constant questions, his brain decided to plunge him into an increasingly heavy sleep. Only for a very small moment he did seem to hear in the distance the echo of a door being opened. Well, maybe a student wanted to sneak downstairs and stuff like that.

* * *

**SYL'S ROOM**

With that shot of the pages, another book was finished: and while Syl, in the middle of the night, rests that novel (strictly psychological horror) on the bedside table next to her, a small thread of thought was unraveling in her mind:

Why, among 7 billion people on earth, had she gone to infatuate herself with Richard?

_"Why, why"_, ... she had never liked that word since she was a child, that continuous demand for a precise, logical, or else, motive for everything, has always bothered her. But she couldn't help but look for a valid answer, listing the various moments that determined her infatuation with that specifical guy: the first time she had felt a kind of feeling for him was when, while she was one step away from being eternally disintegrated by a sea of pixels and data, was saved by Richard, who had reacted without any hesitation; which, outside of her family, she would have considered even impossible to happen.

And this had struck her so much that she gave him, as a sort of thank-you/premium, a cross between a confession and playing with him a bit, with that kiss given the next day (although it is better to say day before). Then there was October 4th, when that beating suffered by Auguste & Co. had awakened in her memories that she had long buried, as in a coffin; and Richard himself that time had shaken in her the trust placed in him. But it was also the day when, first of all, he remembered to ask forgiveness for his gesture of abandonment towards her. And already at that time, knowing how much that boy worked day and night for the team, she readily understood and forgave him.

But it was only later that Syl had learned, through a private chat with Edward, about Richard's past and how he had been abandoned by his family for a rather futile and smoky reason; the French girl recognized in him a person who had no one who cared for him, except themselves, his friends, more than his own guardians.

She had come to feel a kind of understanding, compassion, and perhaps even a kind of love-type affection, towards him, and this had led both of them to a kind of "deep friendship", even outside the struggles against XANA.

But the question remained, why had she fallen in love with Richard? And more importantly, what did he really think of her?

_Mhh... knowing that he's a very direct guy...yes, I'd better ask him one day without fear; I'd prefer a no to a continuous silence, or a back and forth in which none of us decide to come forward. But now, better go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a heavy morning... Who knows who just opened the door in the hallway? Usually everyone's asleep by now..._

* * *

**00.48 - MAYA'S ROOM**

When it is said to have a light sleep: it was enough that kind of that thud, coming from outside her bedroom door, to wake her up suddenly. With messed up hairs and dazed eyes, Maya dragged herself, almost with difficulty, towards the door, and then opened it just enough to take a look in the corridor: there was no one there and nothing seemed to have fallen to the floor or sort of.

Whether it was a dream or not, it didn't matter; Maya just wanted to go back to sleep. But in those days it was becoming more difficult, and she knew why: she felt a burden to the group.

Yes, she was so important because only she and her mother could deactivate the towers, and so she was protected by the rest of the group. But she was, in fact, protected, like a helpless child: she couldn't fight, only run away, while the others had to work hard to get her through that virtual tower, knowing that if she couldn't activate the Code Lyoko , it would be the beginning of the end. And deep down, she never asked for this burden, she just wanted to live a quiet life.

But even if they could rewind time, they couldn't do it with choices.

And perhaps sleep would ward off these thoughts. Thinking too much doesn't allow you to be lucid and choose the best option.

But still: wonder who was the student walking around the corridor at that hour...

* * *

**8.32, KADICK GATE**

Officer: **"Very well, Mr. Poulain, we'll let you know as soon as we have any information we obtain. We'll also send you the results of the search of their rooms."**

Mr. Poulain: **"I see. Thank you, Officer, I rely on you."**

Just as the cloudy sky was gloomy, so was the situation on that Thursday morning at the Kadick, while the siren of the police car was ringing more and more in the distance: three students disappeared into thin air, leaving no trace; and guess who it was...

Mr. Poulain was grieving, even more so than the students and the teachers; as headmaster it was his duty to protect every single boy who resided and studied under the roof of the boarding school; and moreover he had the "defect" of getting too attached to the boys, like a grandfather with his grandchildren, making him feel even worse about this tragedy. So he had brought forward the suspension of all the lessons until today; everyone was already quite tense enough without having to think about tests and various school tasks, and in any case from tomorrow the Christmas holidays would begin, and the boys would go to their families, while few of them stayed at the school.

Meanwhile, under a secluded section of the building's porch, the whole old quintet, plus Maya, was gathered.

Odd: **"I think XANA has been very insistent in inviting his guests."**

Maya: **"I think so, too, if only it weren't-"**

Jeremie: **"-that there's no active tower; and this time the superscanner doesn't look faulty."**

Yumi: **"But it's too strange that three students disappear in the night; especially if we're talking about them; they're certainly not careless."**

Aelita: **"I'm also worried about something else: the police are searching their rooms, and they'll surely check their PCs and cell phones; what if they find out about Lyoko?"**

Maya: **"This won't be a problem; Richard told me that he found a way to keep someone from sticking his nose around."**

Ulrich: "**Let's hope so.**"

* * *

**9.13, RICHARD'S ROOM**

This was the strangest case he had ever worked on; not only because of the situation itself, but also because he had returned to the Kadick after so many years. He missed those corridors, the classrooms, the dormitory; even his friends, although he had been in their way for some time.

Meanwhile, Richard Allen didn't seem to be a suspicious boy: playbooks, comics... nothing illegal or unusual, in short.

That's when his transceiver began to crackle...

**"Officer Dunbar, do you read me?"**

**"Yes, sir; have you found out anything about the girl?"**

**"I think so. In a drawer, under a hidden compartment, there were two items: a simple ornate letter opener... and an empty syringe."**

**"Hmm. Drugs, you say?"**

**"Who knows, no trace of any drugs have been found. Maybe these are items left by the student who was staying here last year."**

**"I see. In the case of the other guy, Richard, I didn't find anything unusual; now I'll take one last look at the smartphone and I'll be done here."**

**"Copy that."**

William Dunbar connected Richard's computer to his smartphone with the USB cable, in order to access his files: again, exploring among the various folders and files, there seemed to be nothing strange, nothing that could be a clue about the disappearance of him and the other two students. However...

_Wait, this file is encrypted! I may have found something interesting_.

Law enforcement, and therefore William too, had recently been trained to force and open encrypted content in suspects' computers and mobile phones, a necessary skill in today's technological world; moreover, you could discover many things in people's devices, sometimes among the most bizarre ones.

_Okay, that seems to have been easy! Let's see what our missing student has to hide..._

As soon as he opened the folder, now decrypted, the following things happened: the screen seemed to freeze, no longer responding to any keyboard or mouse commands; then it started flashing, showing images, frames and glitches on the screen at an almost inhuman speed; finally both the mobile phone and the pc "exploded": in a sea of sparks from the devices, the circuits had burnt, becoming a pile of smoking metal pieces, completely useless and with a strong acrid smell.

**"What the hell happened!?"**

It was not common in police investigations to witness computers "magically" blowing up after clicking on a folder; the story became more and more complicated: who could have kidnapped any three students, and why? Also, what the hell was in that encrypted file?

**"Sir, are you receiving me? This is still Agent Dunbar: I had just found an encrypted file in the boy's phone, but when I tried to access it both the smartphone and the computer "burst" and now everything is burned. This is getting weirder and weirder. "**

**"Copy that. I'll ask to take the devices away and we'll see if we can salvage anything; I'll give you the night off for today."  
"Thank you, Sir, out."**

William then decided to leave the building immediately and get into his car. Ironically, neither the group of old acquaintances nor himself had seen each other during the search.

With the accelerator set in motion and beginning to head towards the police station to leave the car, William thought how chaotic these months had been, starting in October: in addition to the mysterious figure linked to terrorism, who had fled the Czech Republic and is currently wanted, another fact, this time much more macabre, had occurred at the end of that month, now far away; and not in France, but in America: two spouses had been massacred in the most unusual way, that is, by an armoured military vehicle which, with its machine gun, had opened fire on the house, killing both husband and wife. But there could not have been any driver arrested for the terrible act, since the driver had committed suicide just before the police and SWAT arrived. William also remembered that the poor men had a daughter, now adopted who knows where.

And today three students, in the same boarding school where he had been possessed by an artificial intelligence gone mad for quite some time, had disappeared, (almost) without any trace.

But XANA couldn't have come back, could he? Yes, in these months he had had some dejavu, but surely it was only an impression: his work was stressful of his own, and let's face it, you can't blame XANA for all the crimes and strange events; the world is full of them.

Isn't it?

* * *

**FIRST UNKNOWN PLACE**

As he regained consciousness he felt his face glued to a rough, woody material, but the air was still cool. His body, however, had a strange sensation, as if only half of it was there, with half the nerves gone.

Edward, realizing that he had woken up, rose up from the floor. If this was a dream, then it was quite strange: he was in a kind of house made entirely of creaking wood, completely empty, without any furniture, and with dirty old windows.

The only object in the room was a... a Polish sabre? It didn't seem to make any sense, yet there it was, without its sheath, shiny and brand new looking.

_But... what kind of dream is this?_

He tried to perform the litmus test: slapping himself on the cheek and see if he had woken up in his room at Kadick. Nothing: and the strangest thing was that he soon realized that all of his physical sensations were too accurate to be the fruit of his imagination. He realized that this was not just a dream, but he couldn't say for sure if it was a real place.

_No... no! How did I end up here!?_

Panic was pumping through his veins like a dose of heroin: he had to do something, starting to understand this crazy situation a little bit better. Step one: check for other people.

**"Richard! Maya! Syl! Are you there!? Is anybody here!? **There was a kind of response: the usual creaking of the wood, which confirmed Edward's loneliness in that place. He was alone, frightened, without his friends, in a place so remote that as far as he was concerned he could be at the edge of creation.

Edward had been paralyzed in the human terror of loneliness, but he also took a moment of courage: perhaps he would have had a clearer picture of the situation as he went out, not that he could do anything else inside that hovel. Without thinking, his instinct as a hema fencer led him to pick up that Polish sabre from the floor, its handle icy to the touch, but comfortable in the shape. As soon as he lifted the weapon off the floor, he noticed a hint of movement on one of the four walls of the room: a door seemed to have appeared just as Edward had picked up the sword; he had not noticed that the door was not there before, or rather, he had taken it for granted.

Slowly, and with the sword in his hand, pointing forward, Edward opened the squeaky wooden door: the outside light, stronger, blinded him for a few seconds, but as soon as he regained his sight he took a couple of steps beyond the threshold, admiring the place where he was now: an endless moor, which seemed to continue beyond the horizon, as the sun began to set, painting the sky red and orange.

Edward: **"...where am I?"**

**"Where you will make a choice!"**

The boy's head turned with a snap towards the origin of that thundering, yet fake, voice: it was a dark and imposing figure, whose face was concealed by a black mask, without any shape or squiggle to outline its features. He was dressed like an Eastern European nobleman of 1500, but he wore a cape over his shoulder, with a coat of arms embroidered on it, which, although stylized and geometric, instead of round, Edward had immediately recognized: the eye of XANA.

Edward: **"XANA! Where have you taken me and what have you done to everyone else!"**

Figure**: "Partially wrong! I am also a part of you, my boy: a fear of you."**

The figure slowly raised a gloved hand, turning its palm towards Edward; the latter immediately found himself with blurred eyesight and his ears whistling: within himself he could perceive something... they were his friends: he couldn't see them or hear them, but he had a sure feeling, safer than his own being alive, that they were in danger, in a place he couldn't reach.

As soon as he regained control of his senses, Edward was tearful and furious; the knuckles of his right hand, as he held his saber so tightly, had turned white.

Edward: **"Damn you, what are you up to!? Let them go at once!"**

Figure: **"Only if you succeed. I challenge you to a duel: if you win you can save two of them, but one will die; if you lose one chosen by me will survive, and the others will die. Or you can retire, but only you will survive."**

Edward: **"What kind of rules are these!? Somebody's gonna die anyway!"**

Figure: **"Everything has a price, my boy, and deep down you know it: heroism is paid for. Do you accept the challenge?"**

It was the worst dilemma of his life, but Edward didn't want to believe it in any way: No, it had to be a trick, there was the answer somewhere, and it wasn't running away that he would find it.

_I musn't run away... I mustn't run away!_

Edward**: "All right XANA, I accept the challenge!"**

Figure: **"You fool, you just won't accept me as part of you..."**

The two fighters stood at a distance, the tips of their blades almost on the point of meeting.

* * *

**CENTRAL SEWERAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM**

Gilbert Mallet always wanted to be anywhere else, rather than having to deal with people's shit: as a child he was the classic spoiled daddy boy, and he was sure that life would be radiant for him only. Too bad that his daddy found himself in such serious economic troubles that the family plunged into poverty, forcing Gilbert, after some very bad studies, to fall back on a job like this; okay, actually he didn't worked in the sewers directly; he helped in the management of the control units, getting access to various control rooms. But the thought of working for the sewer system made him nauseous. The fact is, however, that you have to make a living.

At that exact moment he had just finished his first shift, and he really felt the need to use the bathroom: he opened the door of the squalid place, and after using the toilet, he went to the sink to wash himself: only when he opened the tap, the water that came out of it was completely black: then, so fast that Gilbert could not even realize the situation, it became a substance that went all the way up his arm, up to his face, and then into his nose, mouth and eyes, shaking him like he was on shock.

He fell to the ground like a stone dead, only to regain consciousness after a few seconds.

Looking in the mirror, XANA admired the newly possessed body - an identity that would allow him to make one last attack before focusing all his attention far away from Lyoko. Or France.

* * *

**SECOND UNKNOWN PLACE**

She woke up from the bed, soaked in sweat: it was as if she was sleeping peacefully, until her brain had registered a kind of shock; it had been a strange sensation, as if she had felt something change in her surroundings.

Syl immediately got out of bed, alarmed, only to notice in a couple of seconds that she had gone to bed fully dressed; she couldn't remember this particular detail. At that moment her only thought was that she had woken up by chance, while someone in the corridor had made ruckus again. She then approached the window overlooking the park and opened it, so that she could get some air. But there was something wrong with the sky: the stars had literally disappeared, and there was New Moon, facing the unlit side.

But it wasn't cloudy, so the sky was actually empty, vacant; the light was provided only by electric lamps and street lamps fixed in the concrete of the streets.

_Wait a minute... something doesn't feel right; but I mustn't panic, I'm going to go out the door and wake up Maya. It's probably an hallucination of my own, a dream... or at least I hope that..._

Slowly and quietly she opened the bedroom door and went out into the women's dormitory corridor; the lights, of course, were off and there was a smell of desolation in the air, as if Syl had been in an abandoned place for a long time. Needless to say, she didn't like the feeling at all.

At a sneaky pace she went toward Maya's bedroom door, knocking lightly with one knuckle; but as soon as she touched the door, it opened by itself, slowly and squeakily... showing that the room was empty: not even a trace of Maya, the bed tidy as if it had never been used, the bare desks, the bare walls, without any poster or shelf. The only thing noteworthy that was present in the room was... a flashlight left on the floor.

_No...no: let's use the logic. It's just a lucid dream... even though it feels too real... Let's try to find Richard... I should be able to wake him up ..._

She took the flashlight off the floor, her hand slightly shaking, which showed a certain nervousness in the girl's soul: there was something wrong inthis place, and deep down she wanted to look for Richard, in the men's dormitory, because she was, deep down, afraid that he had disappeared too.

As she left the room, she was halfway between the center of the corridor and the exit door leading to the stairs, when she noticed two other disturbing details: the first, the most (relatively) quiet one, was that all the doors of the rooms were open, and inside they were as empty as Maya's. They were all gone.

The most disturbing detail was a very faint hissing sound behind her; it was not a wind blow, but more like ...a breath. She turned her head and looked down the end of the women's dormitory hallway... finding a completely "black as pitch" wall, without any light, even when the girl pointed her torch at that exact spot, which seemed to overlap the proper wall at the end of the corridor. It looked like something that shouldn't have been there, something alien. Staring at that sort of black spot, without taking any steps that would bring her too close, Syl realized that she had a terrifying feeling: she felt observed by that strange shadow.

_"And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you..."_

* * *

**STREETS OF PARIS**

Bye-bye rest: at the very moment that the police station was practically at short distance away from him, William's radio began, again, to crackle. And that meant more work.

**"Officer Dunbar here, what's going on?"**

_**"To all the cars in the area: an employee in the sewerage plant has started attacking the staff; we fear that there may be injured, or that he wants to tamper with the sewer system. He appears to be dangerous, so be cautious, and in self-defense you may open fire."**_

**"Roger, sir, out."**

At that moment, four other cars left the police station on their way to the sewerage plant, and William joined them. The only good thing about this was that it was a more... adrenaline-fuelled operation.

**ABANDONED FACTORY, LABORATORY**

Jeremy: **"Oh no, no, NO! This is a disaster!"**

The quintet plus Maya had unanimously decided to control the supercomputer: if the superscanner on Jeremy's laptop or Maya's cell phone wasn't working, maybe it was XANA's fault; maybe he was able to bypass those radars? Apparently it was so.

Odd: **"So, did you find out where our three lost children have gone?"**

Jeremy: **"Yes, and unfortunately the situation is disastrous!"**

Maya: **"What do you mean daddy!?"**; inside her head fear and panic began to spread, while her heart was beating at a fast pace.

Jeremy: "**XANA kidnapped and virtualized them into a simulation bubble on the net! They're living in a world that looks real, but it's all fake; it's not the first time he's used this trick!"** And Aelita remembered it well: in one of these simulation bubbles she thought she had met her father again, but that time too it was the usual XANA's trick.

Ulrich **"Well, it doesn't seem so bad. Let's deactivate the tower and set them free, right?"**

Jeremy: **"No, the situation is far worse! Look at this: I'm monitoring their vital pulses, and they're slowly dropping! And all of this while 2 towers are activated! Simply put, we've got to hurry or... or they'll die of brain death."**

If fear was a person, at that moment it was choking Maya more than anyone else: it wasn't the usual mission to deactivate a tower: here their life was even more at stake. The paranoia and terror of not making it was clouding her mind, in a look that showed the full meaning of the word terror.

Yumi: **"How do we split up, then!?"**

Jeremy: **"Ulrich, you must take Aelita to the active tower in the Forest sector; Yumi, Odd, protect Maya and deactivate the tower in the Mountain sector! And please, hurry as fast as you can!"**

Ulrich: **"Don't worry Jeremy, we'll get them out even before XANA could say "Lyoko"! "**

They didn't even have time to use the elevator, opting directly for the stairs.

_**TRANSFER**_

_**SCANNER**_

_**VIRTUALIZATION**_

* * *

**WRECKED PHONE BOX, UNKNOWN PARIS STREET**

It was not the best way to end his sleep: just opening his eyes and raising his head a little bit had generated a strong painful twinge that started from head to toe, and once the brief moment of hell passed he felt a strong pulse in the left side of his chest, as if someone had made a deep, but sharper cut.

Richard's eyes, as they regained their sight, saw the place where he found himself: an abandoned telephone booth, with broken glass, a telephone without a handset, and a rusty steel frame, while his body was as if it had been thrown there like a sack of potatoes.

Moving his left hand on the ground, groping, attempting to get up, he felt a minor twinge on his back: he had bumped his hand against a sharp piece of glass. Richard did not even have the strength to swear as he got up and realized other details that were all too strange: he felt dried blood on his right temple, his clothes were broken down and worn out, and, above all, the right pocket of his jacket was pierced and burned, as if someone had put a cigar on it; moreover, the contents inside it was quite heavy.

_I woke up in a smashed telephone booth, among shards of glass, and with a burnt jacket pocket... it's a dream; it's the only explanation that comes to mind._

But a voice in his head convinced him otherwise in a very short time; it was strange, he felt that so separate from his thoughts, but it was as if it was the voice of that friend with whom you instantly agree, as soon as he opens his mouth.

_Don't bullshit me: if you knew you were in a dream, that would be a lucid one, so you'd be in full control, which you're not. Deep down you know that everything you're seeing and feeling, even that cut, is real. Oh right, check out what's in that pocket..._

Richard didn't even think about it for three seconds: while listening to that voice in his head, which strangely had the same timbre as his own, he went through the hole in the pocket, pulling out a deformed metal object: looking at it better he realized that it was a kind of photo pendant, made of silver and octagonal shaped, and the engraving on it had been erased by a bullet, which had literally squashed on the pendant, blocking the fatal blow.

_No, wait. Since when do I carry pendants in my pocket?! And...no...I've been shot!?_

And it was at that very moment that, while Richard had grazed the spot hit by the bullet with his thumb, his vision became blurred; and that's when the whole situation changed.

His sight was that of a person lying on his right side, on what was a hard, rough floor. The pain on the left side of his chest was even stronger, but he couldn't do anything: he couldn't get up, couldn't talk, nothing, he could only look at a kind of room with walls all blurred and indistinguishable, as if they were made of smoke.

Little by little, however, Richard's sight was occupied by the most terrifying spectacle he had ever seen in reality (in which he was now convinced he was): two bodies were lying on the ground, immersed in a pool of blood, also them were blurred; but they were also strangely familiar, as if the appearance, build and clothes had already seen them somewhere...

But then he heard a burst ringing so loud in his ears that it was as if he were in a chamber made entirely of steel; it sounded like a revolver shot, and a large caliber.

And on the ground fell, a few inches away from him, a figure that he could not confuse; those clothes, those hairs that partially covered that face, those eyes...

Syl had just fallen in front of him as a pool of blood began to drip from his chest. She'd just been shot. The bright color of her crimson blood, in contrast to her darker clothes and her hair, created a terrifying, but in a sick, twisted way, beautiful vision. And her intact face, despite the fatal blow, had not lost its charm...

Richard could do nothing: it was all so shocking that he could not even exhale a mental cry: he could just but observe, motionless, the one who had always cared for him, die. However, she didn't exhale her last breath at once, because her hand slowly crawled towards Richard's, until she held it with the few forces that remained in her body: despite the pain, Syl's face managed to sketch a smile; a smile full of pure love, addressed only to Richard, who could not bear the sight: seeing someone die was already a lot, but Syl, who used her last breaths to give him that little bit of love left... no, it was too much to bear.

And Syl exhaled her last breath with a word, barely whispered: she hadn't heard it, but Richard was sure that he had read Syl's lips correctly.

_**"Live."**_

And her eyes closed.

That bleak, sad picture of death disappeared from the boy's sight, only to be replaced by two figures in the distance: both were dressed in a pastel white suit, and armed with revolvers; but while one was literally bald and with a face all too anonymous, the other remained imprinted on Richard's mind: short, carefully combed hair, goatee, and a face with a devilish grin; a face that showed no hesitation or remorse in killing four boys only 14-15 years old.

Both of them, as the guns smoked, began a brief dialogue, their voices with a loud Russian accent echoing in Richard's head:

**"Don't you think that was excessive? I mean, they were just kids."** began the man with the anonymous face.

**"They were kids who stuck their noses in the worst place they could do it; I feel sorry for you, but that's also our job. Let's forget about it anyway."**

**"What do we do with the bodies?"**

**"We'll throw them away; for example: the guy in the airman's jacket you can throw him in a smashed phone booth nearby; he was the one who gave me the most trouble, the little bastard. We can throw the rest of them directly into the river."**

**"Copy that, boss."**

**"Oh yeah, you gotta bring me back that 10 pounds of heroin; remember the address?"**

**"23 Rue Parchappe, near the garage; I remember it."**

**"Good; and please avoid playing with guns like you usually do; that Saiga-12 better stay in the trunk."**

**"Easy, boss, easy."**

And Richard went back, out of that memory that had just been relived, next to that smashed phone booth, the pendant in his hand and his body shaking. They were all dead, there was no illusion for him: Edward was dead, Maya was dead.

Syl was dead. And with her, at that moment, Richard's soul was dead.

In all this he had not noticed until now that the pendant had opened, showing in its socket a little bent piece of paper, strangely untouched by the bullet; Richard, with a glassy look, took it and unfolded it, his hands trembling.

_I'll be honest, I didn't know what to give you, so I tried to find something to remind you of me; it's a Cthulhu pendant, a bit obvious on my part, but at least it will be easy to remember me; and then inside it I wanted to put a picture of the two of us, it seemed the most symbolic; but if you want to replace it with something more "intriguing" just ask, hihi!_

_I love you Richard_

_Syl_

And with that last sentence, Richard's brain shut down. The reason, the sadness, the desire to scream; everything had been erased, formatted like a hard disk and replaced by only two things, which were repeated in his head, non-stop, obsessively.

The image of Syl, immersed in her crimson blood.

And the address 23 Rue Parchappe.

He'd have a lot to do there.


End file.
